Bloodline
by copperhair
Summary: Neji is falling apart. First he is forced to group up with new team mates. Next, Neji finds himself caught in a lovers feud between Sasuke and Naruto. In addition, Gaara is hitting on him. Then, there is also the strange dreams Neji has been having.
1. The Eyes Are Watching

_Chapter 1: The Eye's are Watching_

It was an early morning in Konoha. The first rays of sunlight were just beginning to creep over the roof tops. Proud buildings stood, ready to be dressed in their usual attire of golds and shadows. It was a quiet morning. Only the faint melody of birds could be heard from the nearby forests. If There was only one word to describe this sight, it was…

"Peaceful." A figure murmured.

Pearl eyes flashed in admiration of the quickly approaching dawn. The boy stood alone and he was glade. For him, another's presence would just be a smudge on the master that was laid out before him. The Boy smiled to himself. At that moment, the village was his, and only his, and that was exactly how Neji liked it.

After taking one last glance at the mural before him, the brunette preceded in exiting his family estate. It was barely five, yet the young genius was already up and on his way for some early morning training.

It had become a ritual to Neji to train early. He couldn't remember how long he had been following this ritual, but it had become so engraved in him that Neji didn't think he could ever give it up.

As Neji continued his walk towards the training grounds, he found it more difficult to concentrate then usual. Instead of inwardly dissecting some jujutsu or developing a new fighting strategy, the pearl eyed boy found himself lost in the rare beauty of the spring morning. He would never tell anyone, but his favorite season was spring. He just couldn't get enough of the feeling that the season evoked in him.

But by far, what Neji liked best about spring was the variety of greens that came with it. He never could keep track of all the different shades he saw, there seemed to be several new ones every year.

By the time the young genius reached the forest he decided to spend just a _couple_ of minutes admiring the trees before he started training. He slowly wove his way through the forest, paying careful attention to how each tree varied: the shape of the leafs, the trunks' unique curves, the different colors of the leaves; not any two trees were similar.

Neji was almost too consumed in his observations that he didn't notice a non-organic yet, familiar green figure drop right in front of him.

"Good morning, Neji-san! What a fine day it is to be in one's youth. Our bodies are now in tune with the youth of the earth."

"Yes, Lee, spring can be quite energizing." Neji answered.

Another reason why Neji chose to keep the identity of his favorite season a secret was because he didn't what it to slip out that green was his favorite color. The brunette could only imagine what would happen if Lee or their Sensei discovered his secret...

"Gai-Sensei, Gai-Sensei!"

"Yes, Lee?"

"Neji has just confided in me that his favorite color is green!"

"Really?"

"Hai, Gai-Sensei!"

"That is wonderful news, Neji! Why didn't you say so earlier? Here I have an extra-special green training suit with me right here. Here, put it on! It is wonderful that you have finally realized your preference in clothing! The Spirit of youth is indeed within you!"

…

Neji shuttered as he came out of his daydream like trance.

As much as he _admired_ the color green, he did not want to go around _looking_ like a green bean. If Lee and his Sensei wanted to parade around in green spandex, well, that was their choice, but he didn't. Neji could still remember when Gai had once tried to persuade him of the many "advantages" of wearing a green spandex suit. Thankfully, Hinata had arrived at the time, interrupting their little conversation. Neji was never so grateful to be bothered by his little cousin in his life!

"Stupid spandex." Neji muttered

"Sorry, what did you say? I couldn't hear you." Lee piped.

"I said, I wonder what Gai-Sensei has in plan for our training today."

"Oh... Yes, I know. I'm excited, too! Gai-Sensei always has the most fun and unique forms of training planned for us!"

'Yeah, like walking ten laps around the village on our hands "fun".' Neji inwardly groaned.

"Hey, why are you here so early today?" Neji asked.

"Hmm? What do you mean? I get here everyday at this time, it's 6:00."

"What?" Neji was shocked. 'Was I really walking around for an hours?' Neji scolded himself for so carelessly losing track of time.

Before either boy could speak another word, a katana came flying right at them. Both boys quickly dodged the attack and the thrown katana lodged itself in a target the two boys were previously standing in front of.

"Nice aim, Tenten-san!"

"Thanks, Lee." came a high-pitched voice from a nearby tree. The skilled kunoichi then preceded to jump down from the tree she was perched in.

"Morning." Neji stated.

"Good Morning, Lee-san," Tenten smiled at the Green beast, "and Neji-san." she turned toward the Byakugan user.

Neji caught a glimps of something in the kunoichi's hand.

"What is the scroll for?" Neji questioned.

"Hmm...?" Tenten looked lost for a moment. "Oh right! I ran into Gai-Sensei this morning and he told me to bring you two to an important meeting this morning. See, It's all written down here." Tentan pulled out the scroll and continued to speak. "From what I have read, some sand ninjas have arrived at Konoha. I don't know all of the details, but Gai-Sensei believes that their presence has something to do with strengthening ties between Leaf and Sand."

"Sounds important!" Lee exclaimed.

"Yes, it is. Sensei says that the Hokage specifically wants our team and team seven to attend the meeting. It stars soon, we need to leave immediately!"

The other two ninja nodded, and they than they were off leaving nothing but a trail of dust in their wake.

...( Some Several Miles Away)...

Two figures stood alone on top of a tall hill starring down at the little village resting below.

"I hope little brother is right this time." one of the figures stated.

"Yes, we have been looking for so long, I hope we finally found the right place." the other figure replied.

"He has been getting pretty restless lately, I'm afraid of what might happen if this turns out to be another dea-... Wait did you hear tha- Ahg!" a firm clump of sand entwined around both of the two speakers necks.

"You know-" A raspy voice cut in. "I don't like it when people talk behind my back." The speaker slowly walked up to his two captives, his short hair burning a dangerous shade of red. The boy stared darkly at his two team mates, his green eyes flashing.

"Sorry, we-" The sand squeezed tighter. "We, cough, meant no disrespect Gaara!" Kankurou managed to choke out.

"Yes, please we did not mean to offend you!" Temari pleaded.

"I sure hope. . . for your sake." The sand slowly retreated allowing the blonde girl and the other boy some much needed air. After a few minuets of silence the blonde girl spoke.

"I have a good feeling this time, I think we picked the right place, don't you think so Gaara? . . . Gaara?" She looked fearfully toward her little brother for a reply, but got none. The redhead was too busy looking at the village down below him. However, it wasn't the actual village that caught his attention, but a brunette ninja who was running through it. Gaara's breath shortened.

"He..he's ... here..." the red head whispered.

"What? Did you say something?" Kankurou asked.

"Ahgg!" the red head grabbed his head and started to shake violently. "He's here. I finally found him." Gaara began to laugh. A sadistic grin spread over his face. "At last, I'll be able t- to", Sand started to pour out of his gored and spin around him faster and faster.

"Oh no KanKurou! He's,.. he's going to change!" Temari panicked. "Gaara, please calm your self?" Gaara appeared oblivious, the sand just continued to spin faster and faster all the while his eye's began to bleed a demonic gold.

"**Gaara, Please! You must contain your self or all of our plans, all of our efforts, will be for nothing!**" Kankurou shouted. Gaara's growls began to ease and the sand started to slow down. Slowly, the gold faded from the red heads eyes.

Gaara shuttered again and after taking a few shaky breaths he looked up.

"He's too excited." Gaara took another deep breath, "I can't go now."

"Yes of corse Gaara." Temari answered in a sigh of relief.

"We'll go and take care of everything then come back to get you." Kankurou assured

Gaara nodded then slowly disappeared into a million little flecks of gold. Temari and Kankurou gazed in silence at the spot were their little brother just stood.

"We better go." Kankurou murmured and with that they left.

...(Latter that evening)...

It was near dark and Neji just arrived home. It had been one of those strange days.

... (flash back)...

As soon as Neji and his team entered the office, the young genius got an eery feeling. In the room sat the Hokage, Gai sensai, team seven and their moderator, Kakashi, and two individuals he did not recognize, the representatives of Sand he presumed? One of them was a girl, she looked about sixteen years old, blonde hair and carried a huge fan. The other stranger looked like a guy, possibly seventeen, but Neji couldn't tell much else because his back was turned at the moment. Before Neji could try to move to get a better look the Hokage spoke up.

"Good you all made it." he smiled. "I'm sorry to be requesting you on such short notice, but due to some paper complications their was a misunderstanding of the date in which our Sand exchange students would arrive."

'Exchange students?' Neji quirked an eye brow. All the other young Leaf ninja looked equally as confused.

"Wait! Hokage-sama! I didn't know that exchange programed existed between Konoha and other nations." Naruto stepped forward excitement written on face.

"Naruto quiet! It's rude to interrupt someone while they're speaking, the Hokage no less!" Sakura scolded.

"Hmf, dope." Sasuke added. The Hokage chuckled at the display.

"That's quite alright Naruto. You probably never heard of the program before because it has just been created a couple of weeks ago." the Hokage paused. "That bring us to why I have called both Kakashi's and Gai's teams here today. It has been decided that one member from Kakashi's team, Sakura, and two members from Gai's team, Lee and Tenten, will be participating in the exchange program." Again the Hokage paused to let the newly released information sink in.

"We're going to Sand!" Sakura more stated then questioned. She was shocked, long hair and humidity was never a good mix.

"For how long?" asked Lee.

"For one month. During that time our three guests from Sand will reside and train in Konoha and the three of you that I just named will do the same in Sand."

"What was the purpose for the creation of such a program?" Sasuke inquired.

"I'm glad you asked. For the past few years, as I'm sure most of you know, ties between Leaf and Sand have been... rocky. It is the hope of both myself and the Hokage of Sand that this exchange program will be a step toward improving relations."

"Three?"

"Sorry?" the Hokage inquired.

"You said three guests from sand, where is the third?" Neji finished. He looked at the two Sand ninjas standing at the opposite side of the room. It was very slight, but Neji saw a hint of panic cross their features. The brunettes eye's narrowed, something funny was going on.

"I have been informed that the third of our Sand visitors is ill, he is currently resting." the Hokage replied.

"Yes." the blonde girl from Sand stepped forward. "We are sorry our little brother couldn't come to meet all of you today. I think the drastic temperature change as well as the journey took a great tole on his body. By the way, my name is Temari and this is my other brother Kankurou." As if on cue the stocky boy turned around.

'He's wears face paint.' Neji mused.

"Well if there's no further questions I believe that concludes our meeting. Tenten, Sakura, Lee; you three will report to my office this evening to leave for Sand. There will be two shinobi to escort you on you journey. Pack light and remember you will be staying in a very hot climate for a month, may I recommend that you pack plenty of water." With that the meeting ended.

... (end of flash back)...

Neji returned back to reality just as he was entering his bedroom. 'Training will sure be interesting for the next month. I wonder which two of the three Sand I'll be teamed up with?' It always took Neji time to get used to working alongside new people. He had just started to feel comfortable with his original team mates and now he had to start all over again.

'Oh well.' Neji sighed then stretched.

"Ugh" Neji grunted. His back was killing him. The day may have started irregular, but Gai made sure that their afternoon training made up for the time they missed from attending the morning meeting. Well, it wasn't so much training for the 'whole' team as much as it was training just for Neji. His other team mates were busy packing.

Neji didn't know who to feel more sorry for himself or Lee. The "little green jumping been" had been holding back tears ever since the Hokage said that he would have to be separated from his sensai, for a whole month! After the meeting Neji happened to come across both Lee and Gai saying their goodbyes. They were both bawling their eyes out while sharing a huge bare hug.

'So strange, that's the only way to describe it. That and maybe... touching ... no just plain strange.'

'Time away from Gai would probably do Lee some good anyways.' Neji reasoned. 'They are too freakishly alike, time apart will give Lee the opportunity to gain a piece of his own identity'. Neji chuckled.

"Umph!" Neji moaned. Man! He was so sore that it even hurt to laugh!

"I believe a shower is in order." the brunette stated to no one in particular. Neji began to strip off his clothing as he headed towards his bathroom. Neji bathroom was a pale white. It was rather small for a bathroom, but it got the job done, so Neji didn't complain.

After removing his last article of clothing, Neji reached in the petit shower and turned on the hot water and then preceded to step in. The warm water felt like small drops of heaven on his skin. Neji sighed as he reached for his favorite shampoo. It was lavender scented.

The brunette couldn't resist steeling a sniff before he squirted a desirable amount in the palm and preceded to wash his hair. Neji slowly massaged the purple substance in his hair. He smiled. Neji would never tell anyone, but he loved to have his head rubbed.

After finishing the task of massaging the shampoo into his hair, Neji rinsed out the soapy substance and moved on to conditioning. Then when Neji was finally satisfied that he was squeaky clean he turned off both the water faucets and grabbed a clean towel to wrap around his waist.

Neji then stepped out of the shower and walked up to his sink. The brunette stared at his reflection in the mirror in front of him. It was strange, Neji always thought he looked different when his hair was wet. It was almost as if he looked like a completly different person.

Pearl eyes slightly narrowed as Neji ran his fingers through his hair. 'It's almost like I look like a gir-,' Neji laughed, 'Well duh you do have long hair Neji," the genius criticized himself.

Neji then reached down to grab his comb. It was purple like his shampoo. Neji brought the comb to his hair and looked back up. The comb was dropped.

There in the mirror staring straight back at Neji were a pair of bright golden eyes.

"W- wha...!" Neji was shocked beyond words.

The eyes seemed to glow with an unholy light, yet they were so... captivating.

Neji could only gape and stare dumfounded at the hypnotizing orbs in front of him. But then, no sooner then the eyes had appeared they vanished.

Neji was left alone staring at his own reflection.

tbc...

Dear readers,

So what do you think so far? I'm a first time writer, so I really need some opinions/ "constructive" criticism. Do you like the way the story is going? Please drop me a review, if only just to let me know you read my fic. Also, if there are any pairings people want to see, write me, I'm going to be pretty flexible with suggestions. The more love triangles the better in my opinion! . Thanx.


	2. Meeting a New Shade of Green

Well here is chapter two. It was a bit of a challenge to write because the only part of the story I had planed out in stone was the first chapter. I did it though, Bwahahahah! Also, this chapter is pretty short compared to the first, but I promise the next chapter will be a lot longer. It's just the way I had to organize the story to have it flow the way I wanted. Hope you readers like it.

Chapter 2: Meeting a New Shade of Green

"I didn't sleep a wink last night." Neji groaned.

It was time to get up, but at the minuet his body had other ideas. Neji closed his eyes and pinched his nose. A moment latter he reopened them and glanced at the clock that rested on a table beside his bed. "I gotta get up," The boy let out another groan as he tossed aside his blankets and got out of bed.

Neji headed for his bathroom. 'Maybe if I splash some cold water on my face it'll help.' Once at his sink the brunette looked at his face. His eye's were mildly bloodshot and the skin underneath was a little dark, but besides that, it wasn't that bad.

"Not a damn wink." Neji repeated as he turned on the water.

Yep, surprising enough Neji had actually dared to enter his bathroom after his previous nightly encounter. This move was not accomplished, however, due to Neji's courage, but instead because the brunette managed to convince himself that the golden eyes were just an illusion. During the sleepless hours that Neji had spent tossing and turning, he concluded that the eye's were simply a fabrication of the mind. He was just tired from a long days training.

Now, with the brunettes fears put to rest and feeling refreshed from a good splashing, Neji was able to focus on more important matters. Like getting ready for a full day of training with Gai and his two new team mates.

"Gurgle," Neji placed a hand over his stomach. "But first, I think it's time to get something to eat."

Neji headed down to the main family kitchen. At the Hyuuga house all the women seemed to have an infatuation with cooking, so there was always plenty to eat. The refrigerator was practically bursting with left overs.

After taking a quick glance in the refrigerator, Neji picked out a bowl of rice and fish the eat. He decided to eat it cold, since he could already feel that the day would be a hot one. When Neji finished eating, he cleaned up this mess, then stole a glance at the kitchen clock.

"Ten minuets until five,"

Neji then quickly headed back to his room to change and grab his bag. 'What will we do today.' he wondered. 'Then of course there is also the two new team mates.' the brunette smirked. 'Well they will sure be in for the surprise of their life. I bet they never have met a sensai like Gai before.' his smirk widened. 'They probably wont even last until noon.'

Neji gave one last look around his room to see if he was forgetting anything. When he was satisfied that he hadn't, the young genius headed for the estate's exit.

Once out of his family's complex Neji started walking towards the training grounds. He took the same route he always took. He passed the same shops and restraints, turned the same corners and walked over the same bridge. Also, as usual, there was nobody to be seen besides himself.

The sun traced elongated shadows on the ground. Neji looked at his own shadow as he walked. His other half moved with him, copying every move he made. Neji looked up, he was nearly there. Soon his second self disappeared as he entered the dark woods.

Neji began to walk though the maze of trees and bushes. Only small spotlights of sun light were allowed through by the forest canopy. Neji looked down. The forest floor was covered in random splotches of light. Taken back, Neji paused for a minuet. He stared up at the canopy. The brunette gave a small smile. The sun was shinning through the leaves.

He heard something. A rustling of leaves, but there was no wind. A shiver creeped up Neji's spin. He couldn't seance any nearby chakara's, but a gut feeling was still making him uneasy.

Neji slowly brought his head down. His heart beat was beginning to speed up. Neji blinked. His Byugan was activated.

"Where are you?" Neji whispered. Something moved behind him. Neji quickly turned ready to attack.

It was clear. Nothing was there.

Neji still waited a minuet, but nothing happened.

Neji's stance relaxed and he closed his eyes. "Man, I really am sleep deprived," Neji reopened his eye's and released a sigh as he turned around.

"Hugh!" Neji eye's stared in shock at two fiery green orbs looking back at him.

Neji's ninja instincts kicked in. The genius took a great leap back from his unnamed visitor and stood in a defensive stance.

"Who are you!" Neji questioned.

The intruder didn't respond.

Neji wasn't sure how to read this person. His actions were suspicious, but he had yet to make any directly threatening moves. Curious, Neji began to size up his mysterious intruder.

The intruder was a boy who appeared to be around his own age, 15, or maybe a little younger. It was hard to tell, he was pretty scrawny looking. The boy was also currently hanging upside down from a tree branch by focusing chakra in the soles of his feet.

'He has good chakra control.' the genius concluded.

The boy's head was covered with a mob of messy red tresses. His skin was pail, which only added to his scrawny looking appearance. Neji then moved his observations to the intruder's outer wear. The boy was dressed in mostly black, white and brown and had a gigantic... what was it? A vase... no... it was a gourd attached to his back.

'Weird.' Neji thought. The genius had managed to make several calculations about the boy, but he still couldn't find any clues that could tell him whether the red head was definitely a friend or a foe. The boy still hadn't answered his question or even moved. Now that Neji thought about it, he realized how quiet everything had become.

Moments ago there were birds chirping, but now it was silent. It also seemed to get a little darker. Neji was starting to get that gut feeling again.

Neji was about to give up observing the boy for any more telling information, when his eyes came across a forehead protector attached to the red heads clothing. It carried the symbol of Stone on it.

'So that's it, this boy must be the exchange student from Sand that was absent from the meeting yesterday.' Everything clicked into place in the brunettes mind.

Neji allowed his stance to relax as the realization washed over him.

After calming down, Neji moved his pearl eyes from the boys forehead protector to his eyes. They really were unusually, Neji had never seen anyone with that shade of green eyes before. The color was unearthly.

For the first time, Neji noticed that the boys eyes were rimed in jet black. On most people the intense... makeup was it, would be out of place, but on this boy it looked good.

"Beautiful." Neji accidentally murmured allowed.

The red head raised a nonexistent eye brow.

'Shit!' Neji clenched his teeth. 'I can't believe I just said that,' He had not even been around this boy for a minute and Neji had already managed to say something embarrassing.

'Great, just great!' Neji cursed. Neji could already feel his cheeks heating up. 'I need to try to cover this up, or at least change the subject. I'll just play it off like I was taking about the scenery or something.'

Before Neji could utter a word, two voices echoed in the distance.

"I am so going to cream you now! "

"And what bad ingested cup of Ramen gave you the idea that you are "capable" of doing such a thing?"

"What! first of all, one can not digest ramen badly, for it is a Food God. Secondly, it's not just an idea. Now that your little pink haired cheerleader is gone you'll have no one to back you up."

"I don't need anyone's support to succeed as a ninja. If anything, Sakura's consent praise and doting should be considered harmful."

'It's Naruto and Sasuke.' Neji recognized the voices immediately as he glanced toward the side. He could already see faint specks of gold and orange. 'Naruto.' the genius concluded. Sasuke one the other hand was a bit harder of a challenge to spot. His dark outerwear did a much better job of keeping the Sarigon User camouflaged.

After successfully identifying the two approaching ninja, Neji returned his gaze back to the red head, but he wasn't there.

'What! How could that guy move with me sensing it, AGAIN! ' Neji slowly started to turn in a circle, searching every nook and cranny for the red head boy.

Neji considered activating his Byakugan again, but if it had failed to find this guy the first time, it was likely that it would fail to find him a second time as well. If he activated it, it would just be a waist of chakara.

'Common where are yo-"

"AHHHHHHH!" a scream echoed through the forest.

...tbc

Well, that's it I told you it's short, but I promise I'll make up for it in the next chapter. Please review if you have any tips. Also, I got a new editor that is absolutely awesome, so the quality of grammar is probably better then last time. Also, I may edit the first chapter again, or well my new editor may edit it . Thanx again for reading.


	3. Screams, Squirrels, and Suduction

On to the Next chapter of Bloodline. This is a LOOOOOONNGGGGG chapter, for me at least. I'm so proud . So who screamed and why? Hmmmm, well it looks like you will just have read and find out. So with out any further adieu...

Chapter 3: Screams, Squirrels and Seduction

"AHHHHHHH!!!!!" a scream echoed through the forest.

Neji for the second time that day was surprised by the red head. He was now standing right next to Neji, his face only mere inches away.

This was really starting to get Neji irritated.

... ( some forty feet away)...

Sasuke's head quickly turned. Yes, that was defiantly a scream he had heard.

Sasuke had sensed other chakras in the area, but he had assumed they just belonged to other fellow Leaf nin. However, after hearing that scream, Sasuke was beginning to consider that some enemies might be in the area. Not wanting to take any risks, Sasuke quickly sharpened his senses and focused on the chakara's that were located in the direction that the scream came from.

There were two separate chakra's there, one of them was framilure. It unmistakably belonged to Hyuuga Neji, but the other Sasuke couldn't identify. There didn't seem to be any fighting going on, but Sasuke decided to go in and check it out any way. 'I'll just play it normal. Where headed in that direction anyway.'

Meanwhile, Naruto seemed oblivious to the fact that there even was a scream. He just kept on walking and talking about how he was going to beat Sasuke to a pulp and thus gain a billion of his own cheerleaders.

"Dope" Sasuke smirked.

In the past month Sasuke and Naruto had grown closer to one another. It was true that they had already developed a close relationship ever since the mission to Mist, but now, things were even more different.

Sasuke didn't know exactly what to call it, what they had. He knew it definitely went beyond friendship, but he... he didn't think it was appropriate to go as far as to calling them a couple. Sure they did many things that couples did, like, spending time together, going out to eat together, training together, and frequently "spending" the night together... However, Sasuke still didn't think "couple" was the right word for what he had with Naruto.

Maybe it was because Sasuke saw Naruto more as a friend, a very close friend with privileges, but still just a friend. Of corse he deeply cared for the dope and if the situation ever arose he was quite sure he would be willing to die for him. However, Sasuke didn't think that what he felt for Naruto qualified for love.

Sasuke just didn't know. After being hurt so bad and betrayed by a person he both looked up to and cared about, Sasuke found it hard to open himself up. Sasuke was beginning to wonder if he even could truly love anyone anymore.

An image of a certain older bother flashed in Sasuke's mind.

It always hurts more to be betrayed by someone you love then somebody you don't.

"Sasuke, hey Sasuke! Are you ignoring me again you bastard?!"

Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts and turned to the fuming blond beside him. The dark eyed boy smiled.

"Sorry did you say something, I was too busy picturing a naked little kit panting beneath me."

Naruto stopped in his tracks and his eye's popped. Sasuke was usually very reserved and privet about their relationship. Naruto couldn't count the times he had tried to get some erotic reaction out of Sasuke in public and failed.

The guy could turn into a friken dead fish when ever he wanted. Naruto had once even gone as far as giving Sasuke a hand job in a movie theater to try to get a moan or a blush out of him or something! But he remained totally stock faced, eye's never leaving the screen through the entire thing.

Now, finally with no influence from himself, Sasuke was making a sexual comment out in the open.

This was a rare occasion in deed.

Sasuke started to laugh inside as he kept walking forward. He could no longer see the look of shock on the blonds face, but the short glance he already got was enough. 'He's always so easy to get a reaction out of.'

"S- Sa- Sasuke. . ." The dark eyed boy stopped.

". . ." Sasuke slightly turned his head to show he was listening.

"I- yo-" The blond couldn't get out a solid sentence. Sasuke quirked an eye brow. He smelled something funny. The dark haired boy turned around.

'Blood!'

Now it was Sasuke's turn to gap. A trickle of blood was running down from Naruto's nose.

"You are so easy to get a reaction out of," Sasuke snickered. The blonds eye's widened slightly in confusion. Then he brought his hand up to his face and felt underneath his noise. When the blond looked at his hand he smiled too.

"Well that may be true right now Sasuke, but let's not forget who it was easy to get a reaction out of first."

... (flash back to one month earlier)...

It was midday and Kakashi decided to break up team seven into two groups. One group consisted of Kakashi and Sakura and the other of Naruto and Sasuke. The task was simple, all they had to do was search for a scroll that was hidden in the forest, retrieve it, and then head back to the bridge.

At first everything was going smoothly, Naruto created several doppelgangers, all of whom split up and started searching for the scroll. Sasuke also went on his own way to search. Before they split up, Sasuke and Naruto agreed to meet back at their starting point in exactly an hour. That was if one of them found the scroll they wouldn't have to go search for the other.

Well an hour nearly passed and Sasuke just arrive at the meeting place. Naruto wasn't there yet, but that was what Sasuke expected so he just leaned up against a nearby tree to wait.

Fifteen minuets latter Sasuke was starting to get a little nervous. 'Where is he?' As if on cue Sasuke heard a cry off in the distance.

Naruto, or one of his doppelgangers, must have gotten hurt or something, because Sasuke unmistakenaly recognized the cry belonging to Naruto. Sasuke gave an irritated sigh. 'Better find him.' Sasuke took off in the direction that the cry was coming from.

When he found the blonde, Sasuke had to choke back a fit of laughter. There in the middle of the forest floor on his back was Naruto. Both the blondes arms and legs were spread wide and seemed to be held down by some invisible force.

But, it wasn't seeing Naruto in this position that made Sasuke laugh, oh no, instead it was the several little furry animals that were crawling all over the blonde that made the sight so amusing.

There must have been six or seven squirrels crawling up, down, and around Naruto's form. The blonde was struggling as hard as he could to break free and take a swing at his uninvited guests.

Two young squirrels were chasing each other on top of Naruto's tummy. A third squirrel was jumping all over his legs, while another seemed to be humping his arm. Then there was another squirrel who was currently trying to hide acorns in Naruto's pants.

However, it wasn't any of these activities that seemed to bother Naruto the most. The major source of Naruto's frustration was from a sixth squirrel that was sitting on Naruto head trying to take off his forehead protector.

"Get off me you damn squirrel!!! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT I HAD TO GO THROUGH TO EARN THAT!!!!!!", Naruto screamed.

Sasuke could hardly believe his eyes. This was defiantly not normal squirrel behavior. The dark eyed boy was about to get Naruto's attention and ask what happened when he saw a scroll lying nearby, an opened scroll.

In matter it was the same scroll that Kakashi had sent them to collect and instructed them NOT to open. So that was it, Naruto had disobeyed Kakashi's orders and had opened the scroll. Well, this was definitely the strangest side effect for opening a forbidden scroll that Sasuke had ever seen, but still, it was sure amusing.

"Hey dope", Sasuke smirked.

"WHHHAAAAA, Sasuke?" Naruto's head snapped to the side. "Why are you just standing their? HELP ME!!!", Naruto half yelled half laughed. The squirrels running around on his stomach were really starting to tickle him.

"And why should I?" Sasuke replied, a smirk still spread across his face.

"Because I'm your TEAM MATE and I'm being friken VIOLATED by a family of caffeine injected SQUIRRELS!"

Sasuke stared at Naruto for a minute chuckling before stepping forward. As much fun as it was the see Naruto in this predicament, they had to be getting back soon, it was getting dark.

"Ok, one minuet let me look at the scroll to see how to undo it", Sasuke replied. The dark haired boy then picked up the scroll and began to read. Their was no harm looking at the scroll now, Naruto had made sure of that.

Sasuke sighed as he looked over the scroll. After observing it for a minute, which was quite a challenge due to Naruto's constant laughter and cries, Sasuke spoke up.

"It seems that there are small seals of chakra that are holding your arms and legs down. Once I can get those removed the squirrels should disappear or at least start acting like normal squirrels but..."

"BUT WHAT, JUST DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO!", Naruto pleaded.

"The problem is", Sasuke continued. "That all four seals must be disarmed at the same time for the seals to be broken."

"So just do it then!" Naruto cut in.

"It's more complicated then that. In order to break this type of seal I will need to have direct contact with each of the points that the seals binds you," Sasuke paused to let the information sink in. "I'll have to call for help so we can get another person to attend to the seals on you feet while I work on the seals on your hands."

"I have to WAIT for ANOTHER person to show up? NO! No way, I can't wait any longer and I don't want any more people to see me like this." Naruto wined.

"Ahhhww, but Naruto, don't you think that Sakura will find you adorable like this? You know how much she loves animals", Sasuke cooed.

"I- don't- care- what- you- have- to- do- just- get- these- DAMN SQUIRRELS OFF OF ME!!!", Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs.

Sasuke shrugged, Naruto sure put up a persuasive argument? Still snickering to himself Sasuke approached Naruto. He stared at the struggling blonde for a moment while thinking of an alternative solution.

"All right I have an idea. I can use my hands to take care of the seals on you wrists and use my feet for the one's at you feet. Technically I will have direct contact with all the points binding you, but I have never used my feet before to break a seal. I have no idea if it will work", Sasuke paused again. "But from what I've seen, it seems that your willing to try anything."

"Yeah, fine! Just DO IT! These overgrown rats are driving me NUTS!"

"All right", Sasuke smirked walking over Naruto's figure. The dark haired boy then proceeded to crouch down so that he was hovering over the little blondes torso. With a quick few punches Sasuke had managed to fling off all the squirrels from Naruto's body. Then Sasuke proceeded to lie down so that both his and Naruto's stomachs were touching.

Next, Sasuke reached up his hands to Naruto's wrists and his feet to Naruto's ankles. 'Well this isn't awkward' Sasuke contemplated. 'Just concentrate and get this over wit', Sasuke scolded himself. Trying his best to block out the rather intimate position both he and Naruto were now in, Sasuke closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.

He felt it working. His chakra was slowly eating away a the four seals that were constraining Naruto. Soon the seals would be broken.

"Squeak Squeak."

"Oh great Sasuke, the squirrels are coming back. You couldn't even finish them off properly!", Naruto growled. The squirrels were now crawling all over both teens. Now it was Sasuke's turn to growl.

"I wasn't sure what would have happened if I killed them. I'm not familiar with this seal. If I tried anything too drastic I may have ended up in the same predicament as you", a rather annoyed Sasuke explained.

Naruto made a face at this and turned his head to the side. Sasuke was right, as usual.

'This had to be the stupidest scroll protection seal ever invented', Sasuke thought. 'If I didn't know any better, I would think that the sole purpose of this protection seal was for the enjoyment of some third party. Wait! N- no... OH GOD! Do not tell me Kakashi is out there somewhere watching us, like this!' Sasuke panicked.

"Well, there is no use searching for his chakra know. I can't break these seals and look for his chakra at the same time", Sasuke scowled. "I'll just have to try to get this over with faster."

That was easier thought then done. It was getting increasingly difficult to do anything with the damn squirrels crawling all over him and not only that, Naruto was also starting to squirm again.

"Damn it Naruto, stay still! I can't work when your moving." Sasuke growled.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, I can't help it, it tickles." Naruto managed to work out in between giggles.

'Typical', Sasuke thought.

As Naruto continued to wiggle he accidentally started to rub against a very sensitive part of Sasuke's anatomy.

Sasuke froze. Naruto didn't seem to notice the changed state of his friend and kept right on wiggling. It happened again. Sasuke's body became tense. This was definitely not good. Sasuke bit his lip.

"Naruto pl- please st- stop squirming", Sasuke stuttered. Naruto had already managed to rub up against him two more times while he was talking. His forehead started to break up in a light sweat.

"Sorry, Sasuke. I really am trying!" Naruto pleaded.

'Ok, just keep your cool. Concentrate on the task' Sasuke tried to calm himself down. 'Think non-arousing thoughts. Dead Kittens, Nuns, a blender.' Naruto squirmed again. 'DEAD KITTENS!!'

It was at that moment that Naruto became aware that there was some type of lump between his and Sasuke's bodies. At first he thought a squirrel had managed to get in between Sasuke and himself, but after squirming a little, Naruto realized exactly what it was.

'Oh my God does Sasuke have a boner? How the hell could he have gotten an erection now. I'm not a girl and we are covered in squirrels. Could Sasuke be turned on by squirrels? Ewwww, no that couldn't be it. So what is it then? Is it me?' Naruto had to find out. Naruto continued to squirm, this time purposely rubbing against the bump. Sasuke softly moaned.

'Oh my God it is because of me, or my squirming at least.' Naruto looked up to Sasuke's eye's which he found were closed.

After, experiencing the first few squirming fits, Sasuke decided to close his eye's so that he could concentrate better on breaking the seals and contain his emotions better as well.

Naruto continued to star at Sasuke. 'He looks almost like he is sleeping.'

It had always bothered Naruto in the past that Sasuke had such good looks, but now he was actually happy that he did. Naruto began to carefully go over each of Sasuke's facial details; his pail clear skin, thick black eyelashes, well defined cheek bones and neck.

Naruto was now no longer just simply looking at Sasuke, he was looking at him the way a thirsty man looks at a well of water. The blonde's breathing began to slightly increase. He had no idea why this was happening to him, but for the first time in his life Naruto found himself attracted to a boy, Sasuke no less.

A small part in the pack of Naruto's mind was yelling at him for acting just like another one of Sasuke's obsessive fan girls, but a bigger part of his mind was telling him that this is what he had always secretly wanted. Naruto was confused.

'All right almost done, just a few more seconds,' Sasuke thought. 'Wait, what's that?' Sasuke felt something very hot near his face. It was heavy breathing. Sasuke opened up his eye's and looked down. What Sasuke saw took his breath away.

Lying below him was an angel. A frame of gold outlined Naruto's face.

'Oh God!' Sasuke thought as his eyes reached Naruto's lips. They looked so rosy and inviting that Sasuke couldn't resist staring at them.

"Sasuke?" Naruto softly questioned.

Sasuke quickly looked up at the blonde's eye's. His blue eye's seemed to glow. Sasuke remembered that glow. He had seen it before when he was in mist and Naruto thought he was dieing. Sasuke remembered Naruto holding him gently, lovingly almost. He remembered the emotion he saw in the blonds eyes. It made him so happy to see something to beautiful, yet at the same time it hurt.

"Sasuke?" Naruto spoke again timidly.

Sasuke kept staring at Naruto's eye's searching. There was something more in those eye's this time. Something more then concern and caring. Sasuke saw longing, but he also saw fear. sasuke couldn't remember the last time he had seen so many emotions in one glance. It moved him. It captivated him.

It was beautiful. .

Without giving it a second thought Sasuke crushed his lips down on the boy below him. Naruto didn't move he was so shocked. Did Sasuke just kiss him. Naruto felt warm lips pull on his.

'Yep.'

Naruto didn't know what to do. He felt like he should say something and with out thinking he opened his mouth. Sasuke took this as a good sine and dipped his tong inside. There tongs touched. Naruto moaned and his eyes got heavy.

Their tongs started to battle. Naruto was winning, Sasuke didn't like it. The dark haired boy pulled apart and quickly went to Naruto's neck. He began to gently suck the tan skin. He kept moving, searching for the other boys sweet spot.

Naruto gave a load moan.

Sasuke smiled.

He had found it.

They had no idea how long they had laid there kissing like that, but by the time they had managed to separate Naruto was now on top of Sasuke and his shirt was partially unzipped. No more annoying squirrels were present and the seals had long ago been broken.

"That was- I... Wow!", was all Naruto could say.

"Yeah, that was something." Sasuke agreed.

Both boys stared in silence at one another for a moment. The sun had nearly finished setting and everything around them was beginning to be draped in shadows.

"So . . . what does this mean?" Naruto questioned, looking shyly at Sasuke.

"I'm not sure", Sasuke admitted. "But, I... I liked it."

"Me too", the blond agreed.

"Let's keep this to our selves for now." Sasuke paused thinking. "We'll talk about it later, tonight, after we finish delivering the scroll. If we don't get back soon Kakashi and Sakura will start looking for us."

Naruto nodded in agreement.

With that the two teens got up, grabbed the scroll, and headed towards the meeting place. It was rather awkward giving the open scroll to Kakashi. The gray haired man looked at them curiously, probably wondering how they had managed to undo a binding seal that usually required two people. However, Kakashi decided to inquire about the details later, it was getting late.

With a courtly nod he excepted the opened scroll and dismissed his two boy students.

Sasuke then suggested that they go to talk at his place, since it was at a private location. Once there the teens did talk, a little...

Naruto spent the night.

...( end of flash back)...

Whooot, chapter 3 is done So what do you think? One of my goals was to get some boy/boy action in this chapter, but it turned out a little lighter then I would have wanted. Also, I would really like some opinions/suggestions for possible future events or plot development. My two idolized Neji/Gaara fan fics are "All's Fair in Love and War" and "Better Left Unsaid". I have been trying to use pieces I like from these in mine, but still be original at the same time. If you haven't read these stories yet, I suggest you do. They are both excellent! Until, next time cya.


	4. Awkward Greetings

Chapter four is hear so give cheer! la la la la. he he.

Chapter 4: Awkward Greetings

As irritated as Sasuke was that he had been the first to "crack" that night, a smile still graced his lips. He was remembering the details that played out after they had arrive at his estate. At first they talked. It was an awkward talk with a lot of pauses, but in the end, they had managed to establish some ground rules.

First they agreed that what ever was to go on between them would be kept secret. Sasuke didn't want it to get around that he was with a boy. He knew one day he would have to get married, to a "women", if he ever wanted to restore his clan. Sure there was a good chance, considering his popularity, that plenty of girls would still be willing to be with him, even if he had relations with male. However, just the same, Sasuke preferred to keep his relationship with Naruto privet.

Naruto, like Sasuke, also had his own reasons for keeping the relationship a secret. It wasn't the thought of how Konoha would react that worried Naruto. No, Naruto was only worried about what one in particular person would think, Sakura.

Even though Naruto liked Sasuke and was "very" attracted to him, he still held a spot in his heart for the pink haired girl. She was his first crush and he never could manage to disregard the feelings he had developed for her. It's true that the two weren't extremely close, but they had definitely become allot closer since they had been assigned to be on the same team. This small piece of improvement was enough for Naruto to not give up hope that some day he might win the affections of his cherry blossom.

Also, besides the fear of forever losing Sakura, Naruto also feared what she would do to him if she ever found out that he was sleeping with her precious Sasuke. He wasn't sure if she would beat the crap out of him, simply never talk to him again or beat the crap out of him and then never talk to him again.

So it was decided then, for a variety of reasons, that both Sasuke and Naruto would keep their relationship private. Also, the teens had agreed that if either one of them ever wanted out, it would be over, and neither of them would ever speak about it again.

Sasuke closed his eyes as the last thought crossed his mind. He knew it would have to end eventually, but he tried not to think about that day.

... (Back to were a red head and a very startled brunette stood)...

"You shouldn't scream", the red head whispered.

"WHAT!" Neji yelled again. He was in a state of shock and mild anger, not only was this the second time this guy snuck up on his today, but this boy was also dangerously invading his personal space.

The red head moved closer to Neji, his face now a mere inches away.

"I said you shouldn't scream." The boy restated calmly.

Neji couldn't move. He was never this physically close to anyone, unless that person was family, fighting him, or both.

Neji didn't get it. He had a good two inches over the pip squeak, yet he still felt intimidated by the guy.

'Maybe it's those eye's.' Neji considered as the focused on the red head's gaze.

A minute of silence passed between them, Neji was hoping, no praying that the red head would be satisfied already and just BACK OFF, but he didn't.

Their little staring contest just continued.

Neji wanted to break eye contact and step away, anything to get some distance from himself and those eery eye's. However, Neji knew that if he were to back away, it would be a sign of weakness. It would show that the red heads presence intimidated him. Neji was about to let this guy get the satisfaction of knowing he felt intimidated. So the staring contest dragged on.

Suddenly, the red head started to move. It was very slight, so slight that Neji barley noticed.

The red head was leaning in closer and closer. . .

Neji's eye's widened and he realized what was about to happen and quickly took two steps back.

He had lost.

'What the hell was this guy playing at!' Neji was fuming. The boy calmly looked back, a small smile forming.

He had won.

'Damn it!' Neji cursed. This guy was pushing way too many of his buttons for one day. With that Neji decided, possible exchange student or not, he was going to give this guy a piece of his mind. As the brunette was just about to open his mouth, two other ninjas walked into the clearing.

It was Naruto and Sasuke.

They were still arguing with one another, but paused when they saw Neji and the other ninja.

"Ay, who's the red head?" The blonde blurted out.

Sasuke remained silent. He always tried to figure out as much out as he could by himself before asking questions. He started to quickly analyze the short red headed boy. When his onyx eyes caught sight of the Stone forehead protector, Sasuke reached the same conclusion that Neji had.

"You are one of the exchange students from Sand correct", Sasuke stated.

The red head turned to the dark haired boy. His look was cold and unemotional, but still held a small trace of annoyance.

"Yes, he is from Sand." A familiar voice replied. A tall blond girl approached the group. It was Temari and she was closely followed by her other team mate Kankuro.

"Your team mate isn't much of a talker is he?", Naruto stated sarcastically. But before she could answer, Gaara spoke.

"Gaara", the red head stated. He was still staring at the pearl eyed boy.

"Ahh sorry, what did you say?" Neji questioned. 'This guy is so weird!'

"You asked who I was. My name is Gaara," the boy clarified.

'Well that was sure a delayed response.' Neji sarcastically thought. "Nice to meet you." Neji paused. "My name is Hyuuga Neji"

Neji waited expectantly for a response. Gaara did nothing. 'Rude much? What ever I wont let him think he's bothering me.'

"Welcome to Konoha, I hope you enjoy your self while you are hear." Neji gave a small forced smile and reached out his had for a hand shake. Gaara still said nothing, but he did remove his gaze from Neji's and looked at the hand held out in front of him.

'What do you not know what a hand shake is. I know were from different villages, but they aren't "that" far away!' Neji's annoyance was growing more and more by the minuet.

Then, when Neji was about to give up and drop his arm, Gaara's hand reached out and meet Neji's in a gentile grip. Neji felt a small spark at the contact. 'His hands are kinda cold.' Neji noted. Gaara's eye's turned back up to meet Neji's.

"Thank you." Gaara whispered.

The two stood like that for a minuet unmoving. Neji wanted to let go, but Gaara's hand would not release his own. It was strange. Gaara wasn't even holding on hard, but the grip was still hard to get out of.

"Good you all have started to get to know one another already." Gai popped into the clearing in his full green glory.

Gaara suddenly released Neji's hand, much to the brunettes relief.

"This is great, I knew you would all get along well." Gai smiled. "Oh, and it looks like I finally get to meet the third of the Sand trio." Gai winked at the short red head. 'Wow, he looks rather weak, no matter by the end of the month I'll managed to beef him up a little.'

"You are way too energetic for you own good Gai," a much more calmer voice cut in. Kakashi appeared next to Gai in a second puff of smoke.

"Come come Kakashi, how can you not be excited. It's a brand new day and by the looks of it, a very nice one. In addition, we have three new students among us to teach." Gai turned to face the younger ninja. "Our apologies for being late. I know team seven is used to waiting for hours for this old scarecrow to show up, but since our two teams will be teaming up, I won't allow it!"

"Yes, you just had to personally see that I was awake this morning and escorted to the training grounds," Kakashi groaned.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure you didn't get "lost" or take any "detours" Kakashi. How a ninja, such as your self, can still manage to get lost in the village he grew up in is beyond me."

Kakashi's eye slightly twitched. 'This was going to be a very long day.'

'Wow, I can't believe these guys are elites. Are all of Konoha's ninja like this, what a joke.' Kankurou snickered as he turned to glance at his other two siblings. Temari didn't look any more impressed then he did and Gaara, well Gaara looked pretty much like he always did; stoic, mad and bored. 'I hope we can just get what we came here for and leave.'

"Well, as Gai has already mentioned, we have decided to, in a sense, combine what's left of our two teams and our three guests, but there will still be times when you will be broken down into smaller units. Kakashi let out a yawn. "Well, Gai that's my bit for the morning you can take over now."

"What , Kakashi you're leaving! You can't be serious?" Gai protested shocked.

"On no I "am" serious. Consider this pay back for waking me up this morning at four." Kakashi gave Gai one of his classic smiles. "I'll be back around noon and will take over for you then." Gai stared at Kakashi for a moment with an unreadable look. Then his eyes lit up.

"Ahhhhhh! I like your thinking Kakashi, this way they will experience two completely different styles of training today. You still have got the creative spirit of youth within you!" Gai exclaimed.

"Yeah, youth sure." Kakashi yawned scratching his head. 'I can't wait to go back to bed.' With that the scarecrow ninja vanished in a puff of smoke.

"I think sensai just wants to go back to bed or read his perverted books." Naruto whispered to Sasuke. Sasuke gave a small nod in agreement.

'Well at least we will finish the hardest half of our training first.' Neji mussed. No matter how much the one eyed ninja is raved about for his skills he couldn't possibly be any where near as tough as Gai was when it comes to training.'

"All right then, lets try an exercise that will challenge your skills as a ninja, but also allow you to get to know each other better at the same time." Gai paused. "For this exercise you will be split up into two teams and go on a scavenger hunt! I already took the liberty of hiding six objects in the woods and wrote two copies of the objects I hid, one for each team of course."

"So, we just need to go out find more items than the other team and we win. Man this is too easy." Naruto grinned.

"Hold on Naruto, you didn't let me finish explaining. In this scavenger hunt, a team must collect ALL of the six items to win, in addition, all of the items must be perfectly intact."

"So if the other team finds an item before you, that would mean you would have to steal it to win." Neji reasoned out load.

"Correct, in this game I welcome, stealing, fighting and cheating. All right, so now that the task and rules have been set, lets divide you up into your teams. Hmmmmm, let's see. First team will be. . . Naruto,. . . Sasuke and . . Temari." Naruto beamed at this.

"Hey awesome luck, isn't it Sasuke?" Naruto whispered. "We get the babe." Sasuke slightly frowned and gave Naruto a dark glance.

"The second team, by process of elimination will be Kankurou, Neji and Gaara."

'Great.' Neji thought. 'Why do I have to be on the same team as the freaky red head.' Neji closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'I don't even have a fellow Konoha ninja on my team. This is not going to go well.'

"How long do we have to finish the task?" Kankurou asked.

"Oh yes! Thanks for reminding me. It's about eight now, so how about we plan to meet back here at eleven o'clock. That gives you exactly three hours, and an extra emergency hour to get back before Kakashi arrives, but the goal is to be hear at eleven, so aim for that."

Naruto started to laugh, "Yeah, should arrive. Knowing Kakashi's habits we will have more like four emergency hours verses one, ha-ha!"

"Oh don't worry," Gai smiled. "If Kakashi doesn't show on time I will be sure to think of something else we can do. It's been a long two days since I went for a good run. Just think of how many laps we can run around the village if we get an extra four hours.

Naruto's face suddenly grew pale.

"Nice, Naruto, very nice." Sasuke groaned.

"Well, if there are no more questions, here are the lists." Gai handed one copy to each team.

"Ok, I'll give you some time to quickly talk with your team mates and develop a strategy. I am setting this alarm to go off in five minutes, you will be allowed to start then. The next time the alarm will go off is when it's eleven o'clock. All right." Gai started pressing some buttons on an alarm clock he was holding. "Group up, you may start strategizing!"

Neji turned to his two new team mates and walked toward them. They both seemed rather odd to Neji. The guy named Kankurou was wearing some of the weirdest makeup he had ever seen and Gaara, well, he didn't even know where to begin with Gaara.

"So what are the items on the list?" the makeup faced boy asked.

Neji glanced at the list that Gai had gave to him.

"It looks like all the items we need to find are eggs. The only difference is that each egg is painted a different color and has a specific element written on it. The elements are Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Metal and Spirit." Neji looked up when he finished.

"Well that seems simple enough, do you have any ideas or strategies planned to find them?" Kankurou questioned.

Neji didn't answer right away, he needed a moment to think. As a member of the Hyuuga house, he could use his bloodline limit to easily spot the eggs. However, Neji knew he had to be careful about how much about his families abilities he reveled to ninja outside of Konoha.

"Rather good eye sight runs in our family, if we head out looking I think I'll be able to spot the eggs fairly easily," Kankurou made a face at this response, but didn't question further.

"All right, we can try that, but I also think it might be a good idea if we kept an eye on the competition." Kankurou suggested.

"So you want one of us to tail the other group?" Neji questioned.

Kankurou smirked, "Well no, not exactly, what I had in mind was more. . . of a literal approach."

As if on cue, Gaara held out one of his hands in front of him and placed the pointer and index fingers of his other hand to his right eye. Thousands of small grains of sand began to appear in Gaara's open palm and joined together into a single solid mass.

When the sand stopped moving a sand eye was now lying in Gaara's hand. Then, no sooner was the eye was created, it was quickly destroyed when Gaara clenched his fist. The thousands of little gains then blew away by an non-present wind.

'Well, that was sure interesting, but what did he just do?' Neji wondered .

"OWW, my eye!" Naruto cried.

"What's wrong now, dope?"

"Something just flew into my eye."

"I can't believe you can be so easily bothered by a bit of fuzz." Sasuke scolded.

"It was defiantly NOT a piece of fuzz. It was hard, like a piece of dirt or... sand. I think that's what it was."

"Oh right because you know we are only about seventy five miles away from the nearest desert, I'm sure it was just blown in from over there."

"GRRRRRR, well these guys are from Sand! Maybe they still had some sand on them and it just blew off!"

'No way', Neji thought as he glanced back to the red headed boy.

"Did he just?"

Gaara gave gave another eery smile, "We will have no problem tracking their movements now."

tbc ...


	5. Sasuke's Plot

On to chapter 5! I'm so happy, not only have I managed to maintain the discipline to write, but I also have been blessed with a steady flow of reviews from my readers. (You know who you are and you all are awesome.) I'll let you all in on a little secret, if I had not received the continues supply of reviews that I have, I would have stopped updating this fanfic long ago. Reviewers you _are_ my_ Bloodline_. Thank so much for your suggestions, opinions, constructive criticism and complements. Now, to all of you others out there that have read my fanfic, but did not review, tisk tisk. I still do love you for reading, but... I would love you even more if you reviewed. "hint hint" Hehe. Well, once again on to the next chapter of Bloodline.

Chapter 5: Sasuke's Plot

Six teens stood spaced out in a forest clearing. The sun shown bright from over head. The egg hunt had ended several minutes ago. Now, all six eggs lay in a small pile before Gai's feet.

The sensei gazed over the six eggs with a wistful expression. 'So one of the teams actually managed to collect all six eggs.' And not only that, they also manage to get back in record time.

As he continued to look over the eggs, Gai reached down to pick one up. He held the white egg in his hand, the egg that bore the symbol of Spirit. The man held it up close to his face as he traced its smooth surface with his fingers. 'Not even one scratch...' All the eggs were perfectly intact.

Truthfully, Gai had not expect either team to come out victorious. He hadn't even expected all of the eggs to be brought back perfectly intact.

The egg hunt was an excersize commonly used in Konoha to train young ninja's. It was an excersize with a hidden purpose. Although Gai had informed the younger ninja that the goal was for one team to collect all of the eggs and return to the starting point, that was not the true goal. No, the true purpose of the egg hunt was to teach newly formed ninja teams how to work together.

'The level of skill it would have taken to retrieve all the eggs, protect them from an opposing team and keep them in perfect condition would be... advanced, to say the least.' The man looked up at the winning team. They were almost as unmarred as the eggs they had brought. Their cloths were perfectly intact, no scratches or bruises, they worst damage the man could spot was a little dirt on their shoes.

"Hey Green Man! What now? We finished your exercise ahead of time. It's just past nine o'clock?"

The man, snapped out of his thoughts and turned to face a rather dirty and sweaty blonde boy. Gai regarded the other two ninja that stood by the blonde as well.

Filthy, they all were. Scratched up and filthy, this was the condition that Gai expected both teams to come back in. The usually very optimistic jounin for once was not so optimistic. The losing team consisted of both Sasuke, the only remaining Sharigan user in Konoha and Naruto, the vessel of the nine tailed fox. These two ninjas alone should have been a force to reckon with, but apparently for their opponents, they were not.

"Hellooo! Green Man Gai, did you _Hear Me_?" Naruto spoke out a little louder this time.

"Ah, yes Naruto I did hear you, I was just thinking." Gai replied, his normal cheery self back in business.

"Well what now? We finished your exercise and Kakashi sensei isn't supposed to arrive until noon... which probably means he wont get here until two... or three..." Naruto stared up to the sun. "Or maybe four, he sure looked tired this morning."

"Whack," Sasuke punched Naruto over the head. " Just exactly how long does your memory stem back to idiot!"

Gai smiled at this. "Well, it is true that you did complete the task, quickly too I may add."

Gai smiled towards the winning team. "But..."

"But what?" Naruto was rubbing his head.

"But, you did not accomplish exactly what I wanted you to in this task." Gai finished.

"What wasn't accomplish?" a new voice spoke. It was the other blonde member of the losing team, the girl named Temari.

"Well, to be honest I gave you this task with the hope and expectation that neither of you would emerge victorious." Gai paused for a second. "I expected both of your teams to come back with the six eggs divided among you and even for some of the eggs to be damaged."

"If we exceeded your expectations, then why are you displeased." Neji questioned.

Gai thought a moment before responding. He knew he couldn't reveal the true purpose of the excersize, that would be violating a type of code that had developed among Konoha's sensei's. So, Gai did the next best thing he could think of, he made up another reason.

"Well, for starters I wanted to challenge both of your teams, and thought I can clearly see that Naruto's team was challenged it appears that yours was not." Gai stated to Neji.

Neil didn't bother to argue, because in truth, Neji's team really wasn't challenged. Neji was able to easily spot the eggs with the use of his Byakugan. Then the puppet guy would undo each of the jutsus that protected the eggs and then safely carry them in a puppet thing he wore on his back. Mean while, the creepy red head kept a sharp eye on the opposing team, regularly informing Neji and Kankuro of their movements.

The only small inconvenience during the exercise occurred when the other team had managed to get to an egg before they did. This inconvenience was quickly taken care of, however, thanks to the red heads spying abilities.

As soon as the other team had discovered the egg, Gaara informed both Neji and Kankuro. He then proceeded to describe the surroundings of the other teams location. When he finished, he then commenced to lead both of his teammates to the spot. As Garra was leading the way to the he also stated that the other team other teams had apparently decided to hide the once hidden egg and use a strange type jutsu to conceal it.

When they had arrived, with out hesitation, Garra pointed out the eggs new hidden location. Kankuro then set to work to try to undo the strange jitsu, protecting the egg. After several minutes of observation, Kankuro realized that to undo the jitsu one would have to know the exact pattern of hand seals used to create the jitsu. Fortunately for them, they had one team member that saw the exact type and order of seals that were used.

"Secondly," Gai continued, "though your team has managed to be successful, beyond my expectations, the opposing team disappoints me beyond all of my expectations, since you failed to bring back even a single egg."

Neji glanced at his opposing team. Sasuke seemed to be growing madder and madder by the moment. Naruto, also seemed rather offended, but more in a shameful matter. The girl, Temari, appeared to be the only one unaffected by Gai's worlds. She looked like she could care less.

"So what do you want us to do now?" Kankuro questioned.

Giving a smug smile, Gai closed his eyes and crossed his arms. "I plan to kill three birds with one stone. We will all participate in my personal Work Out Plan!"

"What's that?" Naruto questioned.

Neji groaned. He knew what "that" was.

"Oh just a program I developed to build up a little muscle and such. It's a program I originally developed for Lee, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I shared it with you. You know what I'm talking about Neji don't you?"

Neji gave a small nod.

"Yep, this way we can make use of the time we have left over, I can make sure that you three," Gai motioned to Neji, Kankuro and Garra. "are challenged, and also make sure that the losing team," Gai again motioned, this time to Naruto, Sasuke and Temari, "makes up for failing so miserably. Now, we need to get started if we want to finnish by around three."

"But Kakashi's supposed to return at twelve and take over our training then." Sasuke spoke through gritted teeth.

"Ah yes, but as your team mate so wisely mentioned before, Kakashi will most likely arrive very late. Well, enough talk! We got to get started. To begin we first need to get the heart pumping and the blood flowing. So, everyone I want you to run a quick ten laps around the village. Oh, and for those of you who never experienced my training before a small word of advice. Don't try to cut any corners, if you do, I will know."

Neji shivered. He new exactly what would happen if anyone of them tried to cut corners. Gai would make them do it all over, t_he whole thing_."

...( Eight hours later)...

Neji was exhausted. Every muscle, every tendon, every joint in his body ached. It didn't matter how many times he participated in Gai's work out plan, it _never_ got easier! Neji glanced around at the other ninja around him. Sasuke was sitting down nearby leaning against a tree. Several bruises could be seen on his elbows and knees. His sweet covered skin gave off a glossy shine in the evening sun. However, despite the exhausted shape that the Uchiha Prodigy was in, Sasuke still carried a cool bored expression on his face.

'Typical.' Neji smirked as he moved his gaze to Kankuro. This guy had to have had one hell of a time completing Gai's workout. Out of all of them he appeared to be the most out of shape. In addition, he was covered head to toe in a thick black suit. Neji was surprised that all of his face makeup hadn't run right off from the sweet. 'He must be well adapted to the heat from living the desert his whole life.' Neji concluded.

Next, Neji observed Temari. Neji was surprised. He expected her abilities to be similar to that of TenTens. He thought that she would try hard but start to fall behind after the first hour or so, but she didn't. This girl was tough. She had kept up with the rest of the group just fine. She had even preformed better then at least two of the six ninja there, one of which was Naruto of course. Also like the rest of them she was exhausted, covered in dirt, and sweaty.

"Oh my legs, Neji your teacher is nuts, no human alive could follow that workout plan on a regular bases."

Neji quickly looked over to Naruto. The blonde by far looked the most wiped out of all of them. He laid on the ground spread out in a mid jumping jack position. He was breathing hard as sweet trickled down his face. His clothes had sweet spots all over them and they also carried a wide collection of dirt marks. His chest rose dramatically up and down, greedily taking in large breaths of oxygen-enriched air. He was definitely wiped out.

The brunette then shifted his pearl-like eyes to scan the area again. Gai wasn't there. After they had finished ten minutes ago Gai had left to go look for Kakashi. To say the scarecrow was a little late was an understatement. It was now six twenty. They should have been finished with both Gai's and Kakashi's exercises by now and excused for the day.

'How does Kakashi's students stand it? Was he always this late?' Neji gave out a sigh as he reached up to rub his sore neck. 'Wait a minute! Gai is gone, so that means there should still be five other people here besides myself, but I only counted four...'

Neji looked around the area again. The red head was missing.

... ( Some hundred feet away)...

It was dead silent in the woods. The sky was growing dim. Pale yellows and icy pinks were slowly creeping into the sky. The sun was starting to set. The tree's shadows seemed to twist together on the forest floor, forming hundreds of hands, all reaching for the last traces of day light.

As the sun continued to set a rather odd shape could be seen crawling through the trees. Its form was growing, changing, and twisting into something quaisific. The thing let out a low growl as it traveled onward. Its movements grew as it picked up in speed. The creature began to twist and turn as if it was trying to escape from its very skin.

"AHHHHHHRRGGG!" it screamed in a sickly yell.

"My h- Head-dd!!!" The figure was now stumbling as it walked bumping and crashing into any tree or greenery in it's path. The creature was continuing to grow. It's arms elongated and grew sharp claws.

"Not now... not NOWWWWWW!" The creature howled out in pain. Thick saliva dripped from its forming jaws.

The best began to twist again in the most sickly positions, he had to escape he had to get away from it, from the pain, from the hunger...

The creature gave out another might growl and it slashed out at a large tree in front of it. The tree was immediately reduced to mere splinters.

It was destroyed too easily. It wasn't enough. The beast turned in a circle looking for something better something stronger, something that could fight back, something that could bleed...

... ( Back where five ninja's were resting)...

'I am going to kill Kakashi.' Sasuke swore to himself. This was not a good day. In matter of fact, this day could quite possibly be the worst day he had in months.

It all started when Gai had decided to divide them up into groups earlier. Sasuke was paired up with Naruto and the girl named Temari. From the very beginning Naruto was drooling over the girl. He kept giving her sly looks and tried to start a conversation. It short Naruto was flirting with somebody that was not Sasuke.

That bothered Sasuke.

Why was it that "his" blonde always had some stupid crush on some stupid girl? Wasn't he enough! He was Uchiha, Sasuke for crying out load. He was one of the most sought after young batchlers in all of Konoha. Was Naruto trying to purposely mess with him or something? Make him jealous for some reason? No that couldn't be it. Naruto wasn't that smart.

Things had only gotten worse as the day went on. Naruto had been all over Temari! He kept talking with her, no scratch that, he kept talking_ to_ her. She wasn't exactly talking back. Sasuke could see clearly that Temari did not like Naruto, but Naruto didn't seem to notice.

To make things even worse the girl _did_ seem to like him. She kept giving him eye fluttering glances and coy smiles.

Although Naruto was oblivious to the fact that Temari didn't like him, he was still able to pick up on the flirting vibes Temari was sending Sasuke. This, naturally, made Naruto upset. He assumed that Sasuke was trying to move in on his game. So Naruto decided to try to prove himself better then Sasuke, he started showing off.

The blonde had smugly claimed that he could sense an egg nearby, then just took off from the rest of the group looking for it. Sasuke, of course, knew that Naruto's claim was a load of bull, but he still chose to follow anyway. He didn't want to be left alone with the Sand girl, who was still giving him starry-eyed looks.

By the time they had caught up with Naruto, a good twenty minutes had passed. The fox boy may have been dim witted, but when it came to speed he was someone to be reckoned with. Sasuke had considered yelling out to Naruto and tell him to stop playing around and regroup. However, if he were to have called out, it could have given away their position, so Sasuke remained silent throughout the chase.

As Sasuke and Temari approached Naruto, they were confused to see that the blonde was standing rigidly still. Something was wrong. A twig snapped. Sasuke quickly looked toward the direction that the sound came from.

There stalked several huge cats, all of which who were eyeing Naruto like he was the prime rib at some all you can eat buffet.

'Oh crap.' Sasuke cursed. 'How is he always able to find trouble. And _why_ isn't he moving?'

Then Sasuke saw it, lying behind the large felines in the grass was a speck of red. As Sasuke looked closer he discovered it was an egg, one of the eggs that they had been searching for.

Sasuke gaped. 'No way. . , there is just _no way_ Naruto could have actually sensed an egg. !' Sasuke looked back at Naruto. 'It was just a tangent run he went on. Right?' Sasuke looked back at the egg thinking. Either way, Sasuke did know that they were now only yards away from getting their first egg. However, if they wanted to get it, they would first have to deal with the beasts that were in the way.

Sasuke gave a sideways glance towards Temari. She gave a small nod in understanding. The Sharigan user then slowly reached toward his pouch. . .

The fight hadn't last long, both Temari and Sasuke worked well together in defeating the large cat-like predators. However, by the time they were finished, each of the three ninjas carried their own share of bums and scratches. It was worth it though, they had obtained an egg.

Sasuke was so pleased that he was even considering forgiving his little blonde for his earlier display of stupidity. However, all of those thoughts quickly disappeared when the baka wouldn't stop gloating about the whole thing. Naruto was even so bold to ask Temari if she would like to go out on a date with him later. Temari, as expected refused him mumbling something about preferring to date men not children. She then gave Sasuke a seductive smile, which Sasuke of course ignored.

Naruto, never being easily discouraged, tried approaching Temari again. " But you and me belong together. We have so much in common. We both are strong ninjas, smart, and we even look a little alike." Naruto gave a toothy grin.

Temari looked at him blankly. "Just because we both have blonde hair and blue eyes does _not_ mean we look alike." she replied stiffly.

"Oh, I wasn't necessarily talking about our hair and eye color. I was instead referring to the fact that we both are hot stuff."

Sasuke's eye's popped. Temari's mouth dropped.

"I mean," Naruto, continued "there's me with ripped bod and you with your huge bre-"

WAAACCCKKKK!

A bright red spot now adorned Naruto's check. He made an effort to try to rub it, but was unable to do so due to the odd angle he now laid in sprawled out on the forest floor.

"Baka." Sasuke murmured. He didn't feel sorry for the blond not one bit. He had wanted to hit the blond himself, but Temari had beaten him to it.

"DON'T EVER SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!" Temari screamed. She stood chest-heaving eyes twitching. Her fan was out and pointed dead at Naruto. "EVER!" she growled for emphasis.

Naruto didn't respond but gave Temari an unreadable look. Then his face became somewhat plain.

"Sorry, i- it was a joke" Naruto gave one of his classic smiles.

Everything was quiet for a moment. Then suddenly something clicked in Sasuke's brain, "Wait! Where's the egg? Naruto you were holding it last weren't you?" Sasuke was starting to panic. 'Oh God, if that egg got broken I'm first going to strangle this girl for being stupid enough to hit Naruto while he was holding the egg. Then I'm going to strangle Naruto for just being so STUPID!'

"Arggg." Naruto moaned. "Yeah I had it was right in my-" Naruto looked down. "Whoops." The blonde looked up with a sheepish grin. "I must have dropped it in mid soar."

Temari grew pail, she quickly began to look around for the egg. Sasuke started looking too.

"Found it." Temari cried out in relief.

'Thank God.' Sasuke thought as he ran over. 'That egg just better not be damaged.'

"It's not. Well now that's over, lets start looking for the other eggs." Temari suggested nervously.

". . ."

"O- O.K. then, I can carry the egg in my sack. I have some bandages in hear so I can wra-"

"NO." Sasuke interrupted. "We almost broke this egg once, we can't risk it again."

"Well then what do you suggest we do?" Naruto spoke as he approached still slightly shaken up.

"We will hide it again."

"What? That's ridiculous! We just found it. The whole purpose of the excersize is to "find" eggs Sasuke, not "hide" them. If we re-hide it, we will just have to find it again." Naruto blurted.

"Not really, because this time we will know where it is. And not only that, I can use a special jutsu to protect it once the egg is hidden. I've learned a new concealing protection seal that will make anything invisible to all but the caster. Not only that, the seal also hides any chakara traces the object may give off, except for the seal caster again of corse. "

Before waiting for his two blonde teammates to respond Sasuke picked up the egg and walked off toward a near by tree. Crouching down, he slide the egg in a small hole in the ground near the tree's trunk. The Sharigan User then commenced to form a series of hand signs while whispering under his breath. Temari and Naruto both watched as the egg slowly vanished before their eyes. When Sasuke had stopped chanting he picked up some moss from nearby and placed it carefully over the hole.

"Just in case." Sasuke stated. "I'll be able to sense the egg from nearly five miles away, so we should have no trouble finding this place again. Let's set out and look for the other eggs. Each time we find a new egg we will come back here to hide it in the same way. When we are all done all we have to do is come back here grab all the eggs and then make a clear dash to the starting point.

"Simple enough." Temari shrugged.

"Hmf." Naruto crossed his arms.

They then set off again in search of the five other eggs. They must have been looking for about fifteen minutes when Sasuke suddenly came to a stop. "It can't be." he whispered.

"What, what is it?" Temari stopped running and looked back.

"My seal, it-, it's..."

"It's WHAT?" Naruto cut in.

"It's fading." Sasuke finished.

"What does that mean?"

Sasuke looked back anger clear on his face. "It mean's someone is breaking the seal."

"But I thought you said that was impossible!" Naruto protested.

Sasuke gave Naruto an annoyed glance. "I'm not sure what exactly is going on. We should go back a check."

When the three ninja's arrived the egg was gone. In it's place was a pile of sand.

Sasuke's brow furrowed as the last bit of memory went through his mind. Over all, Sasuke still couldn't decide if he was more furious at Naruto for hitting on Temari or at the fact that they had horribly lost the egg hunt. Sasuke did not like to lose. He was taught from day one that losing was unexceptable. Also, Sasuke was very competitive by nature. He was a perfectionist, who pushed himself to be the best in everything he did. Sasuke worked extremely hard to achieve his goals, but unfortunately, that just made it all the more bitter when he did fail.

Sasuke closed his eyes as he remembered the feelings of absolute shock and shame that were throne in his face. He was the Uchiha Prodigy. How could he have come back empty handed!

The Sharigan User closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'All right, I failed, that simply means I will need to train harder.' Sasuke smiled. 'This could quite possibly even be a positive thing. Since the opposite team was able to win so easily, they must be pretty strong, or at least some of them.'

There was Neji, whom Sasuke knew without a doubt was a strong and accomplished ninja, but what about the other two from Sand. There was Kankuro, but he didn't strike Sasuke as a strong roundabout fighter. He had struggled the most out of the group during Gai's work out. He also didn't give off very "bright" vibes.

Next Sasuke considered the short pail boy named Garra. From his appearance alone Sasuke would normally never consider him to be a worthy opponent. However, after seeing him train in person, Sasuke's opinion changed. Gaara was able to complete all the phases of the work without a problem. In addition, he did it all without removing the large gourd from his back. He was strong, despite his skrawny appearance.

"I'll have to arrange a one on one fight with him before they leave." Sasuke decided.

Now feeling slightly more at ease, Sasuke's mind wandered back to his problem regarding Naruto's _flirting _with Temari. Situations like this were always happening with Naruto. Manly Naruto would go after Sakura, which didn't bother Sasuke that much, but there were times when Naruto went after other girls as well. Sasuke had to stop himself from laughing when he thought about the irony of it. Most of the girls that Naruto hit on, were the very girls that were hitting on himself.

'It is sure a twisted web we weave. But this has to stop! But how?' In the past, Sasuke had already tried yelling at the blonde, beating him up a little, and even screwing the blonde senseless. None of it worked.

'I need to really hit Naruto where it hurts...'

Sasuke's eyes snapped open that was it... All he had to do was hurt Naruto the way that Naruto hurt him. Sasuke needed to start hitting on other people too.' This was perfect. He would make the blonde feel neglected and unwanted. Sasuke let a wide smirk slide over his face.

'Yes, Naruto would just come crawling back in no time. But wait! It would be stupid to just suddenly starting hitting on lots of people. Not only would it be unbelievable, but it also would likely cause several side problems. I only need one person to make Naruto jealous. One person should be more then enough. But who?'

Sasuke knew a girl was out of the question. If he even hinted that he was interested in any of his many fan girls, he would never be able to get ride of her. It would be too much of a public thing with a girl. A boy would be much better. It could be done more casually with a boy, but not too casual that Naruto wouldn't notice. Sasuke would make sure of that.

Which boy to use? He couldn't just pick anyone. Sasuke wanted a person that was attractive, obviously. In addition, the boy had to be someone who was in the position to be seen with him in front of Naruto, frequently, enough so that his plan would work. The person also had to be single. 'So who should I pick...' Sasuke opened his eyes and found his answer sitting right in front of him.

A boy. Same age. Attractive. Single. A strong ninja and fighter.

Hyuuga Neji was perfect.

tbc...

Whooo who who who, yes, I am so mean aren't I? Well this was another one of my longer chapters. I really need to stop doing that it just takes me to damn long. Also, my poor editor suffers as well. So what do you think? I thought the story needed some spicing up so vwala. Lots of spice. To be quite honest I have no bloody Idea what I'm going to make happen in the next chapter, so if anyone has some ideas, do share. Also regarding the rating of my fic, I know there hasn't been allot of bamy wamy stuff going on yet, but all in do time. I promise I would not rate this fanfic M for nothing. Well, I think that's about it. Please review, even if it's just to say poo. (tee he I rhymed XD)


	6. A Strange Scent

Chapter 6: A Strange Scent

Neji suddenly let out a sneeze as a chill ran down his back. 'Odd.' the brunette thought. He rarely ever got the chills, unless something was not right. It was like a six sense he had. 'I wonder if this has to do with the fact that Gaara's missing?'

Just then, Neji heard something. He turned his head, as did the rest of the other ninja in the clearing. 'Is it Gaara?' Neji wondered.

"Hello all." A white haired sensei said in a carefree melody. The older ninja then stepped into clear view.

"Kakashi? Is that you?" A very tired Naruto mound. "I'm going to really give it to you this time. Do you know what we went through because you didn't show up on time!" Naruto tried to sit up and continue his banter, but he was currently too sore to do so and just let out a small grunt of pain.

"Yes actually, I do know. Gai informed me on all of your activities before I arrived."

"That explains one thing, but you have yet to give one of your "colorful" excuse to explain you tardiness sensei." Sasuke cut in none to nicely.

"I do give my apologies, you see I was given a very important mission this morning at last minute, one that I could not refuse. I was not excused from duty until fifteen minutes ago, during which time I came straight here."

"So what now? It's getting dark. We aren't going to start training with you now are we?" Temari questioned.

"No, I think all of you have already done plenty of training for one day, however, I do have something else in mind." Kakashi smiled under his mask. "Tonight to make up for the little inconvenience I put you all through I will be taking you all out to dinner."

"Awwww, awesome Kakashi sensei. I forgive you now. So where are we going to go. Can it please be a place that has Ramen?!" Naruto seemed to suddenly come back to life at the mention of free food.

"Yes Naruto, I believe the spot that I picked out does serve Ramen."

"Thank you sensei!"

Kakashi gave another warm smile. "But, first things first though. I want all of you to go home quick and get cleaned up. The place I'm taking you to is somewhat nice."

"But sensei why? Every restaurant in Konoha is used to have dirty ninja walking in. It's no big deal." Naruto protested.

"Yes, that's true Naruto, but none of you look just a_ little dirty_, you look like you just took a dive in a mud pit."

"That's not true, especially for that quiet one with the red hair. He barely got a scratch on him even after going through all of Gai's crazy drills."

Kakashi looked up. "You mean Gaara? I don't see him."

"What?" Naruto turned around. "He was just here a few minutes ago."

"Sorry, I think my brother had to go... _relieve_ him self." Kankuro explained. "He should be back shortly."

"That's fine, just tell him when he comes back about the dinner and to clean up."

"We'll do that." Temari assured.

"Great the meeting place will be in the middle of village square. You probably know where it is. You can see it from the apartment that you are staying at."

"Yeah, I remember looking at it this morning before we left. We will be there shortly. The two siblings then gave a final nod as they turned and headed off into the woods.

"Ok then." Kakashi turned to the three remaining ninja. " Please hurry up too, remembers make your selves presentable." With thoughts final words Kakashi disappeared in a puff of leaves.

...(Kakashi 's prov.)...

'This is not good, none of it makes any sense.' The jounin picked up some speed.

Ever since two days ago there had been some very strange murders discovered in Konaha. So far all of the victims had been dogs. There bodies had been completely smashed. It looked as if a steamroller had run over the victim's bodies from all sides at once. But what was even more odd was that each of the murder scenes completely lacked any trace of blood. Even the dogs distorted remains were dry.

It was the strangest thing Kakashi that had ever seen. He had never had heard of any ninja technique that could do that. Something just seemed wrong about this case, like it wasn't your typical murderer. Why would a person want to go around killing random dogs, unless it was a wako doing it? Which lead Kakashi to another possibility, maybe the murderer wasn't even human, maybe it was some type of animal, but what kind of animal would have the capability to do that. Kakashi had no idea. All he knew was that he was exhausted.

He and several other high ranked ninja had spent all day searching for clues, taking interviews and looking for signs of any other victims.

Kakashi looked up for a minute. He could faintly see the moon through the trees. He wasn't making any progress in his mission and he desperately needed a break. He couldn't wait to have a nice relaxing dinner.

...( Several miles away at the Uchiha Estate)...

'I can't wait to go to dinner. This is the perfect opportunity to start my plan in motion. I can start to make a move on Neji and Naruto will be right there to see every agonizing minute of it.' Sasuke looked at himself in his bathroom mirror and smiled.

He had just gotten out of the shower and was debating what to wear. He wanted to dress especially nice this evening. He was trying to decide weather to go the usual rout and wear something dark blue, or go for a bit of a change and wear something black. He just couldn't make up his mind. He looked good in pretty much any dark color.

"Probably the black tonight." Sasuke decided aloud. If he were tiring to gain the brunettes attention it would be more helpful if he tried to wear something he usually didn't. Sasuke strode into his room and over to his dresser.

After digging around for several minutes. He found the perfect outfit. He would wear a black net under shirt that reached just above his elbows on the arms. On top of that he would wear a tight black tee shirt. For pants he picked some black pipe like jeans that were on the baggy side, but not unstylish too big. Then to finish it all off Sasuke wore a small silver necklace around his neck that bore his family crest.

'Perfect.' Sasuke thought as he regarded himself in the mirror.

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, tonight would go quiet smoothly."

...( Nearby at another well-known estate)...

"Ahhhh, I feel so much better." a very happy and also a very nude brunette proclaimed to nobody in particular. Neji had just gotten out of the shower and he felt great. The pain in his sore muscles had begun to fade and the stiffness was also going away. 'The wonders of a nice hot long shower will never cease to amaze me.' Neji mused.

"GGGGeregle." Neji's stomach seemed to think differently. Although a shower preformed many wonders, filling an empty stomach was not one of them.

'More motivation to hurry up.' Neji smiled as he pulled a clean tee shirt over his head. For dinner, Neji picked out a rather casual looking outfit. He wore a plain white top and black khaki bottoms. He decided not to rewrap his arm and leg, just for the sake of going to dinner. For his hair Neji wore a low pony tail. He didn't know why, but he just felt like making a change.

Neji took one last glance at himself in the mirror when he was done. "Perfect." the brunette stated as he made one final adjustment to his hair. Neji then proceeded to turn around and exit his bathroom. As he walked through his room he decided to bring some money along at the last minute. If Kakashi turned out to be as irresponsible with money as he was with being on time, Neji didn't want to pay the price.

Neji had already had an exhausting day and he didn't want any more chaos. Neji, finally reached the main door of his family estate. He was about to leave when he smelled something funny in the air. He couldn't place it. It was very fait, slightly metallic? It was coming from the door. Neji grabbed the doorknob and turned. The door swung open.

Neji's eyes went wide. He now knew what was causing the smell...

"Gaara... is that you?"

The figure that stood on his front porch didn't speak, but he looked up at the sound of his name. Neji was starting to get a little scared. Gaara's eye's seemed to be glowing, but that wasn't what was frightening Neji.

No, what scared Neji was the fact that Gaara was dripping head to toe in blood.

tbc...

Sorry it was short I know, but still how was it? Creepy and dark I hope, that was what I was going for. So what happened? Why is Gaara covered in blood? Why is he standing on Neji's door step. You will just have to wait until next time I guess. See ya!


	7. A Kiss to Remember

Sorry it took me so long to update. College apps took a lot longer then I thought they would. Thankfully though, they are now officially DONE!!!!!!!!. Hahahah. (For those of you have already been through or are in the middle of the process, I'm sure you can relate.) Ok, on a fanfic note: This chapter was pretty hard to start. I haven't written in, what has it been, two, two and a half months? So anyway, just to warn you I may be a little rusty.

Chapter 7: A Kiss to Remember

"What the..." Neji paused in mid sentence.

"drip drip"

Neji's attention quickly fell to the growing puddle of crimson at the red heads feet.

'Blood.'

There was so much blood. The young genius watched, sickened as several more drops fell to the earth.

'It's fresh.'

Neji's face slightly scrunched at the realization. Was Gaara hurt? If he was, how was he still able to stand? Such a large amount of blood loss should have made the boy unconscious by now.

'Maybe not all of the blood belongs to Gaara? Some of it could have come from an opponent', Neji's brow furrowed. 'But still, even if "some" of the blood belonged to another person, the red head should still be a little woozy. There is just so much.'

'First things first, I need to contact the Konoha medical team, he needs medical treatment. It will probably take at least a good fifteen minutes for help to get here, but he needs immediate medical assistance', Neji took a deep breath. 'I know, I'll patch him up as best as I can first, then contact Konoha hospital. Otherwise he probably wont last until help arrives.'

Neji started stepping forward. "You need medical treatment. Come in side and I can start to tend to your injuries. Then I'll contact our village's me-" Neji paused.

'Wait a minute.' Neji's eyes started moving about Gaara's frame. 'I don't see any cuts or no scratches. Where are his injuries?'

Suddenly it hit him.

Gaara wasn't injured.

None of the blood was Gaara's.

Neji activated his chakara and focused on the figure in front of him. Using a jujitsu he recently learned, Neji carefully started to observe the chakara traces given off by both the blood and Gaara's body. Neji's eye's widened in horror. Not only did Gaara's chakara not match the chakara traces given off by the blood, but the blood contained more then one type of chakara.

Neji couldn't believe it. The blood gave off, he couldn't even count how many. On one an arm Neji could sense three separate chakara traces from three separate splatters of blood. On the other arm, five. On the torso, there were another seven. Then on Gaara's cheek, he found an additional three, and those were the only the one's Neji could clearly distinguish. He couldn't even tell how many other chakaras laid mingled together at the red heads feet.

Neji was starting to get nervous. The boy in front of him had yet to look up at him, let alone speak. Every thing about the whole situation screamed "wrong" in Neji's mind. His body was telling him to run, but still he stayed. His curiosity cemented him to the spot. Neji was going to get some answers.

"What happened?"

No response. Neji decided to be more firm.

"WHY are you covered in blood?!"

The red head slightly stirred, but it still wasn't the response Neji was looking for.

"I SAID WHAT HAPPENED. WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Neji screamed.

This time the red head lifted his head, but his eyes still focused down. A small smile graced his lips.

'Something is very wrong.'

For once, the genius wasn't sure what to do. 'Why did Gaara come here? Did he come to fight me? kill me?'

Neji knew, that if the sand nin did attack, there would be no one around to help him. No one else was currently at the Hyuga estate. In addition, the next housing complex was a good several hundred meters away. 'What am I going to do?'

The genius was starting to consider the pros and cons of making a run for it when Gaara finally looked up. Neji, found intense green eyes focused on his own. He tried to say something, but nothing would come out. It was those eyes. Those eerie eyes, they seemed to rob him of the very ability to speak.

He watched in fascination and horror as those green eyes slowly illuminated in the growing moon light. At that moment, Neji's mind went blank. He forgot the blood and were he was, all there was at that moment, were those eyes.

'Wait, I know those eyes from some time before, but when?' The young genius struggled to grasp onto a memory he wasn't sure was even there.

Neji's head began to hurt.

At first it was only a slight tingle, but soon that tingle grew to an uncomfortable throbbing. Neji wanted to reach up and massage his temples, but instead he settled for blinking his eyes a couple of times and taking a few slow breaths.

It didn't help, the throbbing was just getting worse.

'Why isn't he moving or saying anything?' Neji brow wrinkled. 'Oh my head hurts. What the hell is going on?'

It was then that Gaara started to move.

Neji quickly shifted his eyes to Gaara's right arm, the limb was slowly rising. Neji unconsciously focused on Gaara's skin, or at least the parts of it that were untouched by the blood.

'He is so pale.' Neji noted.

When the hand finally stopped its elevation, it was held in front of Gaara's face, palm facing inward. Then, ever so slowly the red head's eyes left Neji's and refocused on the hand held out before him. For several minutes Gaara just observed his hand in silence.

'What is he doing now? This guy must be crazy!'

As if Gaara could hear these thoughts, his eyes quickly turned back to Neji. He looked, angry.

Neji swallowed.

After a moment, Gaara slightly relaxed his scowl until it turned into a rather disturbing smile. The red head began to stretch his arm outward toward Neji.

"What's wrong with you?" Neji blurted out before he could stop himself.

'Crap.' Neji cursed. 'The last thing I should be doing now is trying to get him mad.'

Surprisingly, however, Gaara seemed unaffected by the insult and simply tilted his head to the side as his smile grew wider. If Neji didn't think the boy was crazy before, he certainly did now.

"Bad-ump bad-ump." Neji could feel his pulse speed up. Adrenaline levels were starting to increase. Neji felt a light perspiration form on his brow. The headache was beginning to make him feel extremely dizzy. His body was starting to shake slightly despite, from either the intensity of the headache or his nerviousness. Neji wasn't sure.

Neji's mouth was going dry, he licked his lips.

Gaara's eyes immediately sifting to Neji's mouth. His smirk dropped.

Neji, knew the Sand nin must have been contemplating something, but at the moment he was in too much pain to even care. Neji started to bite on his tongue in an effort to try to distract him from the pain his headack was causing. Neji's eye's began to droop. His head hurt so bad. He had never felt a pain like this before. The genius went into his mind. He still had to remember something.

'What is it? What is it? I have to remember. Remember. Remember! Why can't I remember?'

Neji was at the point of tears now, but refused to let them fall. The genius tried to concentrate harder. He was practically panting now. 'What ever I forgot feels...old. It must have happened a long time ago, that's why it must be so hard to recall. I remember...I remember...wet?

Neji's eyes popped open to see, 'Gaara?'

Neji tensed as he again felt the wet sensation. It was coming from his lips, which were currently consumed by Gaara's.

Neji was too shocked to protest as the other boy slowly snaked arms around his lower back, pulling him closer. Fingers started to make soft caress up and down Neji's back. Gaara's lips continued to move.

Finally getting over the shock, Neji started struggling. He managed to break the kiss, but he couldn't escape the sand nins iron grip around his waist.

'He's practically a twig, he shouldn't be this strong.'

Starting to panic, Neji began to thrash violently.

"LET GO! WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YO-"

Neji breath was knocked out of him as he was roughly pushed against a nearby wall. His head painfully made contact with the brick slabs behind him. His hands were held tightly in place on either side of his head. The rough texture of the wall was beginning to cut into the skin of his wrists.

"HEY! Get off of-"

The boy's words were cut off as Gaara's mouth again found his. Taking advantage of the boys partially open mouth, Gaara quickly slipped his tongue into Neji's mouth. The young genius cringed as the red head's tongue found his own.

'Blood.'

'He tastes like blood.' Neji wanted to gage, the smell and taste of copper was making him sick. Frustrated and repulsed Neji bit hard on the other boy's tongue. Just as Neji had hoped, the red head released his mouth, allowing him a fresh breath of air.

"LET GO! WHAT THE HECK IS THE MATTER WITH YOU. GET OFF." Neji screamed.

"No."

Surprised to actually get a responce, Neji momently ceased his struggles. 'He finally said something?'

"And why NOT!"

A moment passed, with no response. 'Figures.' Neji mentally cursed.

"Because, you made a promise."

"What?" Now Neji was sure he was crazy. "I never made any promises to you? And now that your finally talking, why don't you explain why you're covered in blood!"

Gaara chuckled, "You made me a promise a long time ago." The red red paused and leaned in to nuzzle the other boys neck. "The blood, it's from, some... things I have killed recently."

Neji stiffened as Gaara began to lick his neck. 'So the blood isn't his, but what were the "things" that he killed? Were they people?'

Gaara's licks were turning into light nibbles.

"How many "things" have you killed?" Neji tried to cover the shakiness of his voice, but was failing miserably.

Gaara paused and leaned back a bit. "Mmm, I'm not sure. I lost track after the fifteenth." The red head shrugged, then went back to Neji's neck.

'Fifteen! How was he not caught by an official?' The nibbling was now becoming more intense, it was beginning to hurt.

"Are you going to kill me?" Neji whispered.

The nibbling stopped. Gaara leaned back again and looked Neji dead in the eyes.

"You really. . . don't remember, do you?"

Neji shock his head.

Gaara stared at the pearl eyed boy for several minutes, then he removed one of the hands he was using to hold Neji's writs. However, to Neji's frustration, a clump of sand quickly took the hands place, still securing his wrist to the wall. Gaara brought his free hand up to Neji's face and cupped it tenderly.

"Well, that wont do. You'll need to remember, so that you can fulfill your promise."

Neji was about to ask what the promise was, when something strange started to happen to Gaara's eyes.

Green was being claimed by gold.

Neji stopped breathing.

"It's those eyes, from the other night."

Gaara slowly leaned in. Neji was trapped within those eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to-" The golden eyes started to glow.

"help you-" Neji could feel the other boys breath on his lips.

"remember."

...( center of Konoha)...

"Man where is everyone? I'm starving!" Naruto's stomach gave out a growl in agreement.

"I don't know, but I do know that complaining about it wont help the others get here any faster." A rather irritated blond girl in pigtails replied. 'Really, I have never met such an annoying boy in my life. He acts like a child.'

Naruto blushed sheepishly, "Sorry Temari, it's just that we worked so hard today that I've really have worked up a big appetite."

"Hmmf, whatever."

Naruto frowned. 'Man, why are girls always so difficult. Oh well, since she's twice as hot as Sakura I guess it would only make sense that she is also twice as challenging. Naruto smiled to himself. Never mind that though. In the end my ninja skills and charm will win her over, just as long as Sasuke doesn't get in my wa-.'

"Sasuke-kun!"

'Speak of the devil.'

"Sasuke-kun! Over here." Temari was waving enthusiastically as she ran towards the approaching nin. "I'm so glad you showed up, I was starting to worry that something happened to you."

"I just had some things to attend to." Sasuke shrugged.

It was true, the prodigy was "attending" to something. After Sasuke decided to use the Hyuuga boy to teach Naruto a lesson, he wasted no time in forming a plan.

Sasuke smirked to himself as he went over the details in his head. First he would need to establish a friendship with the boy. This would be fairly easily for him, especially with the double team up arrangement. Also, the dinner tonight would provide another unique opportunity for them to get on better terms. After, he managed to befriend Neji, he would then explain his situation and ask the Neji for his corporation in a few "acting skits".

Of course, Sasuke knew that the changes of the Hyuga boy agreeing to help him with such a request was zero to none. That is why Sasuke had prepared an offer for Neji, one he knew the genius couldn't refuse.

Freedom from his family seal.

Only a very few number of people knew it, but for several years now, the Hyuuga family had owed a favor to the Uchiha family. Sasuke was planning to use the favor to his full advantage. He would offer to use the favor to free Neji from the seal, after, he helped him with his plan to make Naruto jealous.

Sasuke smirked again at his genius. It was perfect and if he played his cards right, he might even be able to present his offer to the Hyuga boy tonight. Speaking of which-.

"Where is Neji?"

"Umm, I don't know. We are still waiting for Neji, Gaara and your, I mean our, sensai to show up." Temari replied slightly blushing.

"hmf." Sasuke walked to a nearby building wall and leaned against it to think. 'Damn it, Neji better show up. I worked hard on forming this plan I want to start things in motion tonight.'

"Maybe we should try to track them down," Naruto half suggested half pleaded as his stomach let out yet another grumble.

"I think we should look." A dark figure spoke out for the first time.

Everyone turned to Kankuro.

Kankuro eyed Temari specifically. "Don't you think so Temari." Temari slowly nodded her head as the hidden message was received. "Temari and Sasuke lets split up and look. Naruto, you can stay hear in case they show up."

"Hmf, who died and made him leader?" Naruto huffed.

"Stop complaining Naruto, just stand watch. Well be back soon." Sasuke turned to the Temari and Kankouro. "I'll look for Neji, why don't you look for your brother." The two sand ninja nodded and the three ran off.

...( back to the Hyuuga Estate)...

Gaara stared at the unconscious boy as he laid him down on a bed. Sand was gently tracing the boys frame as it carefully removed any traces of blood.

The wind came through a nearby open window. A few hairs blew out of place. Gaara reached out and tucked the stray hairs back behind an ear the leaned down to the sleeping boy's face.

"Remember." The red head kissed the boys temple.

"Remember me."

tbc...

Ok so what do you think? Do you like the way in which the story is heading? Please let me know because I'm kinda making this up as I write. Also, I have been considering starting another fanfic using the Naruto characters, but this time it will be about the Akastuki. I want it to be a romance fic and I'm debating weather I want to use my own character or Sakura for pairings. Either way I will have to make it a little AU, for what I have in mind. Sorry I can't be more specific then that, but I don't want to give away any ideas. If I do start another fic I would probably update one fic one month and the other fic the next. So, readers would have to wait two months verses one for an update on a given fic. Would that seriously traumatize anyone out there. If not, I may do it soon. I'll see. Any way, thanks again for reading hope you liked it!


	8. An Offer You Can't Refuse

Hello every one! How were your Turkey Days? Good I hope. Gotta love the pie, that's my favorite part. Ok, so anyway, sorry this is a little late, but I think you'll find the wait worth it. I Also would like to "give thanks" to all of my reviewers. I'm so happy my number of reviews are now in the twenties, I just feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So thank you, all who have reviewed! Also, thank you Rosy Possie for editing. Now on to the next chapter:

Chapter 8: An Offer You Can't Refuse

'It feels strange...'

Neji slowly opened his eyes. Everything was dark and silent. The genius tried blinking a few times, but his vision remained the same.

'Where am I? How did I get here?'

Everything felt groggy to Neji. The young genius made a move to sit up.

"What!?"

Neji turned his head to the side. 'Where's the ground?' The pearl eyed boy desperately tried to feel for the ground or anything solid beneath him.

"There's nothing here!"

"There's nothing here!" Neji heard his words echoed back.

Neji tried looking around him, but it was useless. Everything was pitch black. 'Maybe I should see if anybody else is here?' The genius considered.

"Hello, is anyone out there?"

"Hello, is anyone out there?" Neji again heard his echo, but only silence after that. Neji decided to try again.

"HELLO IS ANY-", Neji stopped when he saw the darkness start to ripple.

Neji wasn't even sure how he could even see the ripples, being that everything was pitch black, but none the less he could. He could even feel the ripples as if they were little waves traveling through him. It felt strange, but somewhat pleasant.

Then everything stopped.

A light buzzing started to ring in Neji's ears as a tiny light appeared out of the blackness. The light started to twinkle, then another appeared. Then another and another, then ten more. Twenty. Soon, Neji could no longer keep count.

The lights were quickly spreading throughout the darkness. Neji's eyes widened as he realized what the tiny lights were.

"Stars." He whispered.

The stars were every where now. Neji stared transfixed by the millions of little lights. He had never seen the stars so clearly before. The crisp contrast between their bright bodies and the dark night, made the sky look like black velvet. If Neji didn't know any better, he would have tried to reach up and try to feel the sky for himself.

"Umph!" Neji felt like he fell back on something hard. He reached back to try to rub his shoulders, but there was something in the way, something solid. Pearl eyes widened as his hand made contact with the ground beneath him. Neji quickly rolled over so that he was now on his hands and knees looking downward.

Dirt, grass, twigs and sand lay beneath him.

"Thank God, at least I'm on solid ground again." With a new sense of relief, the genius turned to his right; he saw forest and mountains in the distance. Neji then looked to his left; he saw sand, just sand, and a lot of it.

'A desert and a forest? where am I now? Is this the Leaf and Sand border?' Neji stood up to get a better look around.

'This is the border line.' Neji turned up and again gazed at the heavens. "How the hell did I get here?" The genius scratched his head as he tried to think.

'I remember training earlier today with Gai. I remember the egg hunt, then going home and cleaning up for dinner, then...' Neji squinted his eyes closed and gently pinched his upper noise.

"Dammit! I know that wasn't it, but nothing else is coming to mind!" Neji let out a long sigh as he relaxed his face. 'Alright, I can't remember exactly how I got here so, I'll worry about that later. For now I need to focus on getting back to Konoha.'

"Snap!"

Neji quickly turned his head toward the direction that the sound came from, his Byakugan activated. He could see something, a lone cloaked figure running in the far off footage.

'Or I can just ask someone for directions.' Neji smiled as he carefully concealed his chakra and started to follow the runner.

It wasn't long before the genius was right on the runners heals. However, Neji remained hidden. He wasn't about to make his presence known until, he could learn more about the person he was pursuing.

'He can't be a ninja." Neji reasoned. "He's running too slow. Height looks to be about 5 ft 5. Age probably youth to early-" Neji stopped dead in his tracks as he sensed another presence behind him.

There was something behind him approaching fast. Neji turned around to look. He couldn't see it yet, but Neji could clearly sense it now. The chakara trail was huge, stronger then any chakara Neji had ever sensed before. It was too strong.

'It's not human.' Neji realized. That left only other thing it could be.

'A Demon.'

Neji was getting worried. This wasn't good. He turned back to look at the runner. Then Neji looked back in the direction that the large chakara was coming from.

'Is this person being chased?' Neji wondered.

Neji didn't have long to pounder, before he sensed a second approaching chakara. This second chakara seemed equally as strong as the first.

'Another Demon?' Neji was in disbelief. Demons were not exactly a common commodity anymore. It was believed there were only a dozen or so left in the whole world. The chances of crossing two demons at the same time were close to zero. Neji was getting a bad feeling about the whole situation.

'Something's wrong.'

Neji closed his eyes as he tried to get a better readout on the two approaching chakaras. 'They both seem to be pretty equally matched in power. They also seem to be approaching from almost perfectly opposite directions, one from the forest and the second from the desert.' Neji closed his eyes tighter, he had never tried to read chakaras this powerful before. It was difficult. 'It also seems like the second demon is changing shape.' Neji opened his eyes. 'That's strange. What kind of Demon could do that?'

Neji looked out towards the dry flat lands, but he couldn't see anything. 'It must still be too far away to be sighted.' Neji concluded both to his relief and disappointment.

'I need to do something.' Neji resumed his pursuit of the running figure. "That guy may not even have a clue that two demons are heading this way.' Neji leaped off a branch, he was now close enough to call out to the runner.

"Hey, you, wait a minute!"

The runner didn't respond, but continued running.

Neji made a face. He really didn't need this situation to get any more difficult then it already was.

"I said Hey! SLOW DOWN!"

The runner still made no effort to stop or respond.

Neji was getting pissed. 'That's it, I don't have time to play cat and mouse.'

With a giant leap Neji flipped over the runner and landed a good five yards in front of him. Arms crossed Neji opened his mouth to give this person a piece of his mind when he was interrupted by a loud noise.

"CRASH!" It was coming from the direction that the first chakara was coming from.

The runner stopped dead in his tracks and turned his head to look back. He was shaking.

'He's terrified.' Neji realized. His demeanor immediately softened as he took a step forward.

"Do you know what is chasing you?"

The runner let out a gasp and grabbed his head and started to whimper.

'Wait a minute.' Neji took another step forward. 'That was not a guys voice.'

The runner pulled back her hood and let a main of black spill out. Although Neji still couldn't see her face, he was now certain that the runner was a she.

The girl hung her head down and continued to moan in pain. Neji bent down besides her.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

The girl didn't answer, but just continued to shake and whimper. Neji put a hand on her shoulder. The two approaching chakaras were getting closer.

"Please let me help you. I don't know if you can sense it, but there are two very powerful chakaras, that most likely belong to demons, quickly heading this way. We need to get out of here." The girls sobs eased a little as she stole a glance behind her.

Neji's eye's furrowed. Although he could only see the back of the girls head, he could still see what appeared to be a light glow coming from her face. It looked like a faint green light.

"What is that on your face?" Neji asked.

She turned around.

It was the seal.

Neji lost his breath.

The seal, the same seal that he and all of the other branch family members were cursed to wear. She had it on her forehead and it was currently being activated.

"If you have the seal that means..." Neji slowly moved his gaze down to her eyes.

Pearl meet pearl. She was a Hyuuga.

"Who are you?"

She was crying now.

"You are a Hyuuga." Neji more stated then questioned.

She closed her eyes and dropped her head.

"Please, why won't you say any- AHHHHHHHHH!" Neji grabbed his head in pain.

The seal, his seal was now activated as well. "Damn it, not now!"

Neji was starting to have trouble breathing. Never had he remembered it hurting this bad before. His head was pounding. He could hear the pounding in his ears. Neji squinted his eyes closed as he tried to deal with the pain.

It felt like his whole body was pounding know. Neji reopened his eyes. Everything was starting to get blurry and dark. The girl in front of him was fading. She was still crying. Neji wanted to help her, but at the moment he couldn't find the strength to reach out to her while he was in so much pain.

"Please someone help me! Please take this away!" Neji wanted to cry himself, but resisted.

It felt like the ground was shaking now. Back and forth.

'Please make it stop!'

Despite Neji's best efforts, he started crying from the pain.

At least he felt like he was, his face felt wet.

'Please...' Neji begged.

"Neji!?" A soft voice called out.

'What? Where is that voice coming from? It's not the girl.'

"Neji, come on!" The voice was now a little louder.

"I know that voice it's..."

"NEJI WAKE UP!!!!!!"

"Splash!" a cold bucket of water was dumped on Neji's face.

"COUGH!" Neji shot up from bed as he tried to cough the water out of his mouth.

"Cough, cough, cough,"

"Don't scare us like that Neji, we thought you were going to die or something." It was Gai's voice.

Neji took some deep breaths and then looked up. Gai looked back at him with slightly worried expression.

"You alright?"

"Yeah," Neji reached up to his forehead. It didn't hurt anymore. It wasn't even sore. "I'm fine."

"You had us worried for minute there Hyuuga." another voice spoke.

Neji turned his head, it was Sasuke. The Sarigan user stood leaning against the wall to his right.

"What happened?" Neji asked woozily. Everything still seemed a blur to him.

"You were sleeping, and having a nightmare by the looks of it." Sasuke calmly stated.

"Oh." Neji tried to hide a blush. 'Well, isn't that perfect, the great Sasuke saw me having a nightmare.' Neji looked down at his now wet clothes and bed sheets. "Wait a minute! Why did you throw a bucket of water on me. Couldn't have you just woken me up the old fashion way, like shaking me or something?" Neji was a little pissed now.

"Believe me, we tried, but you just weren't waking up." Neji turned back to Gai. "You had us pretty worried for a minute. You were crying out and tossing and turning. What exactly were you dreaming about?"

"I-," Neji paused. "I'm not sure. I mean. I- I remember it, but it didn't really-, it was just a dream." Neji finished with a blush. 'Well I feel dumb.' Neji new his answer sounded pathetic.

"What I mean is I can't remember all of it, just bits and pieces." Neji looked up at his two visitors, who both gave him questioning glances.

"By the way, what are the two of you doing here, in my room anyway?"

Sasuke stepped forward from the wall he was leaning on. "I came looking for you when you didn't show up for dinner. On the way over hear I ran into Gai and he offered to come with me?"

Neji stared at Sasuke blankly.

"Dinner?"

"Yes. With Kakashi." Sasuke added. Neji's eyes widened.

"Right, sorry, I was on my way when..." Neji stopped again as his mind went blank. 'What was I doing?'

"Umm. I must have laid down for a second and slept longer then I intended to. My apologies. Thank you both for waking me up." Neji kicked his legs out of bed and stood up.

"It's not that big of a deal. Kakashi is supposed to meet us in five minutes and knowing him, he will be late anyway." Sasuke took a glance at a nearby clock. "We have plenty of time to get back before Kakashi will arrive."

"Speaking of the time, I'm late for a date myself." Gai gave a wink to the two boys. "See both of you bright and early tomorrow. Take care of yourself Neji. I suggest you get plenty of sleep tonight. You still look a little pale." With that said Gai vanished in a puff of smoke.

Neji stared at the spot Gai was just standing in disbelief. "He has a date!?" Neji had to keep his mouth from dropping. He certainly hadn't seen that one coming.

"Apparently so. I sure feel bad for who ever his date is. That is, if he really even has a date." Sasuke smirked. Neji smiled and let out a little chuckle in agreement.

"I'll be ready in just a minute. Need to get out of these wet clothes." Sasuke nodded and stepped aside so that Neji could have access to his dresser. Neji quickly started to rummage through the drawers to find something clean and decent to wear. 'Damn, all my nice stuff is dirty. Oh well, it's not like I'm trying to impress someone.' Neji gave a sigh as he finished selecting his last article of clothing. 'I also need a towel.' Neji stood up to head for his bathroom.

"Towel?" Neji nearly jumped as a fresh towel was held up to his face. Neji's eye's met Sasuke's.

"Um, thanks."

Neji took the towel from Sasuke and began to dry his long and very wet hair. 'Well he's acting nicer then usual.' Neji closed his eye's as he pat-dried his face. When he finished Neji tossed the towel onto his bed. Sasuke was still standing there, staring at him. It wasn't like Neji had never changed in front of another guy before, but undressing in front of the Uchiha at the moment... made Neji feel uncomfortable.

'Why is he just standing there, staring! Doesn't he have the decency to leave or at least turn around?' Neji inwardly huffed.

Neji was considering to ask Sasuke to step out of the room for a minute or at least move so that he could get into his bathroom. However, such a request seemed like a sign of weakness, and the last thing Neji wanted to do at the moment was to make himself appear more weak.

He still couldn't forget the ridicule he felt when he realized that "the Great Sasuke Uchiha" had seen him tossing and turning from a nightmare. To make matters even worse, Sasuke also witnessed Gai dumping water on him to wake him up. How humiliating!

No, there was no way Neji was going to ask Sasuke to do anything. So, Neji did the next best thing, he turned his back toward the Uchiha and began to undress himself.

Sasuke couldn't believe his luck, he now had the Hyuuga all alone. This was the perfect time to present his offer to him. And to think that Sasuke had thought this night was going to be a disaster.

Sasuke turned his attention back to Neji and the task at hand. He needed to speak to Neji now, while they were still alone. The problem was, Sasuke had planned on doing things, differently. In the original plan, Sasuke was suppose to get on better terms with Neji before he made his offer. This is why going to dinner was so important, it was the perfect opportunity to have casual "get to know one another better" talk.

Sasuke knew that if he were to present his offer now, he would be skipping the whole "getting of friendly terms" thing. Sasuke cocked his head to the side. However, this alone time with Neji was an opportunity that was just too good to pass up. Sasuke made up his mind. He would go for it now.

To Neji's relief, only his hair and shirt got wet, so he only had to strip down to his waist. Neji realized a small sigh of relief as he finished drying the last inches of his torso. When he was done, Neji again tossed the towel on his bed and then bent down to pick up the clean shirt he had picked out.

"Hyuuga." Neji froze hearing Sasuke call name.

"I have an offer for you." Neji leaned down the rest of the way to pick up his shirt. There was something strange in Sasuke's voice, something that told Neji that he shouldn't ask, but he did.

"An offer for what?" Neji straightened up and started to pull the item of clothing over his head.

"An offer for you freedom." Neji froze again eye's wide.

"Freedom?"

"You know freedom from that seal on your forehead. The one all Bran-" Sasuke didn't get the opportunity to finish as he was roughly shoved against the wall behind him. Neji was mad.

"LOOK, I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU FOUND OUT ABOUT THAT, BUT IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. FURTHERMORE, I DON'T APPRECIATE YOU MOCKING ME WITH FAKE OFFERS!" Neji screamed, he didn't care who heard him he was furious. If there was one sore topic to bring up with Neji it was his seal. He never wanted to talk about it.

Neji's teeth were clenched and he was staring daggers with his now Byakugan activated eyes. Sasuke had the urge to activate his Sarigan and shove Neji off of him right then and there.

'No! I need to stay calm.' Neji tightened his grip on Sasuke's collar.

Sasuke pressed his hands to his side and tightened his fists.

'If I don't it could ruin everything.' Sasuke relaxed his hands.

"My offer is not fake and I'm not trying to mock you. Did you forget that the Uchiha Clan descended from you own many years ago. The seal that the Hyuuga family places on the Branch family members is common knowledge within the Uchiha Clan."

Neji loosened his grip a little. Sasuke took this as an sign to continue.

"You see, several generations back the Uchiha Clan, my clan performed a favor, for your family. I could go into the details of what exactly that favor was, but there are several different versions of the story and the story itself isn't important. What is important is that your family owes mine a favor." Sasuke paused. "And being the last of the Uchiha, I have the full right to call in that favor whenever... for whatever...I want."

Neji stared straight ahead in disbelief. Sasuke smiled and slowly leaned forward so that his lips were an inch from Neji's ear.

"I can ask the Main family release you from that seal." he whispered.

Neji shivered, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. If all what Sasuke was saying was true he could finally have control over his destiny. He could escape the fate he thought he would always be shackled to...

But what if Sasuke was lying? It didn't seem part of Sasuke's behavior to lie, especially about such an important matter as this, but still... Neji was unsure.

"I'm not lying to you." Sasuke spoke before Neji could even ask the question. Sasuke stared Neji dead in the eyes.

"I'm not lying." Sasuke repeated again.

Neji could see the seriousness in Sasuke's eyes. 'He's telling the truth.'

Neji completely released his hold on Sasuke's collar and backed up a good foot. The two remained like that for a minute, then finely someone spoke.

"Alright, what do you want me to do?"

...( In The Forest Nearby)...

"Gaara! What the hell were you thinking!" Temari was trying her best not to scream, which was difficult because she was livid.

"Yeah Gaara, you moved too fast and were careless, what if someone had seen you covered in all of that blood, or even worse, what if-"

"Shut up Konkuro! I know what I was doing!" Gaara gave a cold star to both his siblings. "I did what needed to be done. In case you two have forgotten, I'm working under a time limit here." Gaara brought one of his hands up to his lips and started licking at a patch of dried blood. He closed his eyes and sand started to swirl around him. When the sand finally settled Gaara was clean.

Temari didn't say anything, but it always made her sick how easily Gaara could "clean" himself.

"What do we do now?" she questioned quietly.

"I sense two chakaras in the Hyuuga Estate besides Neji, one of them belongs to the green Sensai, the other to the Uchiha boy." Gaara paused as he took a last lick at his wrist. "They will take care of him. We can go now."

"We're going to dinner still right? " Kankurou's stomach let out a low rumble. "I'm starving."

Gaara turned and gave his older brother a cold stare.

"I'm just saying Gaara, if you keep not showing up for things and disappearing all of the time it's going to make you look suspicious." Gaara still looked unconvinced "If the people here don't trust you it can make it even harder to get done what you need to do."

"Fine we'll go." Gaara gave a twisted smile, "However, I don't think I'll eat much. I already ate."

With that said the red head disappeared in a swirl of sand.

The two remaining sand siblings stood together in silence. The wind blew and a nearby cricket could be heard singing. the two ninja didn't look at one another or speak.

They didn't have to.

After another minute they were gone, off following their younger brother.

tbc...

How was it? Hope it was to all of your liking. I'm so happy it used to take me so long to write a chapter, but I think I'm getting a little quicker now! Yahoo! I know the story may seem slow, but I really don't want to rush things. It just drives me nuts when I read a fanfic that seems rushed, so I'm trying hard to let things happen naturally. This probably means this will be one long fan-fiction when it's done, oh well. lol.

I've decided to wait a little before I start writing another fan-fiction, maybe in a few months or so. Don't worry though, I will definitely continue writing this fic. I'm determined to finish it, no matter how long it takes me! Again I hope this chapter wasn't a disappointment to anyone and a special thanx to all of my reviewers for reviewing. I love you . Enjoy that left over turkey and pie!


	9. Note to Readers

Hello readers! For those of you who have been keeping up with my story, you probably have noticed that that there have been some things changed. That is because things have been changed. I have not added a new chapter this time because I did not have the time. I spent more time then I had intended on revising, dividing, rewriting, cutting, rearranging and rephrasing my already existing chapters. Sorry, I know you were looking forward to a new chapter. However, I think you will be pleased to go over what I fixed. It is ALLOT better now. Especially the earlier chapters. Man last month when I look ever my earlier work I was like OMG!!!! I couldn't believe I wrote that. I guess that's a good thing though because that means I'm getting better. Especially because the last two chapters needed the least amount of work. So yeah!!!!!! I'll be updating, for real, in a about a month. See ya!

p.s. I hope everyone had a great Xmass and a happy New Year.


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